INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND
OPERATIONS RESEARCH
PRESENTS
IEOR MONDAY SEMINAR
Intelligent Procedures for Intra-Day Updating of
Vijay Mehrotra
Dept. of Decision Sciences
ABSTRACT: For nearly
all call centers, agent schedules are typically been created several days,
weeks, or even months prior to the time that agents report to work. Once
schedules are created, call center resource managers receive additional
information that can affect forecasted workload and resource availability. In
particular, there is significant evidence, both among practitioners and in the
research literature, suggesting that actual call arrival volumes early in a
scheduling period (typically an individual day or week) can provide valuable
information about the distribution of volumes later in the same scheduling
period.
In this paper, we develop a framework for managers to make
an optimal intra-day resource adjustment decision while taking into account updated
call forecasts, updated agent requirements, existing agent schedules, agents’
schedule flexibility, and associated incremental labor costs. We then
demonstrate the value of this methodology in managing the trade-off between
labor costs and service levels to best meet variable rates of demand for
service.
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