IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tjorxx/v70y2019i2p326-337.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization in a two-stage multi-server service system with customer priorities

Author

Listed:
  • Eman Almehdawe
  • Beth Jewkes
  • Qi-Ming He

Abstract

We consider a two-stage, multi-server queueing network that serves two types of customers, which we refer to as type a and type b. Type a customers require service at both sequential stages and type b customers only require service at the second stage. The first stage has one node and the second stage has multiple nodes. Type a customers possess a higher non-pre-emptive priority than type b customers. Depending on the model application, two goals are explored: the first goal is to allocate type a customers to the second- stage nodes in a manner that minimizes the average blocking delay; the second goal is to optimize the service speed of each server in the second stage so that the average blocking delay experienced by type a customers is minimized. In this paper, we develop an approximation scheme and an iterative algorithm to find stationary policies, which we then apply to the real-world contexts of Emergency Medical Services planning and airline staffing. Numerical examples show that, compared to some typical heuristic schemes (e.g., proportional allocation based on arrival/service capacity), the suggested allocation policies result in type a customers experiencing shorter delays and allow more of them receive service.

Suggested Citation

  • Eman Almehdawe & Beth Jewkes & Qi-Ming He, 2019. "Optimization in a two-stage multi-server service system with customer priorities," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(2), pages 326-337, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tjorxx:v:70:y:2019:i:2:p:326-337
    DOI: 10.1080/01605682.2018.1438762
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01605682.2018.1438762
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01605682.2018.1438762?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tjorxx:v:70:y:2019:i:2:p:326-337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tjor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.