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Inventory based allocation policies for flexible servers in serial systems

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  • Ramesh Arumugam
  • Maria Mayorga
  • Kevin Taaffe

Abstract

Motivated by an industry example, we study a two-station serial system in which we allocate flexible servers in order to maximize throughput. We investigate two cases which are different in the way that servers work together when at the same station; namely collaboratively or non-collaboratively. For the collaborative case we prove the optimal policy to be such that the servers work together at a single station at any point in time. In addition to the policy being state-dependent, it also follows a switching-curve structure. In the non-collaborative case, on the other hand, it may be optimal to allocate servers to different stations. Some numerical examples and results regarding policy assignments, switching curves, and system throughput are presented. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Suggested Citation

  • Ramesh Arumugam & Maria Mayorga & Kevin Taaffe, 2009. "Inventory based allocation policies for flexible servers in serial systems," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-23, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:172:y:2009:i:1:p:1-23:10.1007/s10479-008-0465-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-008-0465-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. Dimitrios G. Pandelis, 2014. "Optimal control of noncollaborative servers in two‐stage tandem queueing systems," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(6), pages 435-446, September.
    5. Tuğçe Işık & Sigrún Andradóttir & Hayriye Ayhan, 2016. "Optimal control of queueing systems with non-collaborating servers," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 79-110, October.
    6. Emmett J. Lodree & Nezih Altay & Robert A. Cook, 2019. "Staff assignment policies for a mass casualty event queuing network," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 411-442, December.
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