Modeling and simulation of call centers.

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Description/Abstract

In this review, we introduce key notions
and describe the decision problems commonly encountered in call
center management.
Main themes are
the central role of uncertainty throughout the decision hierarchy
and
the many operational complexities and relationships between
decisions.
We make connections to analytical models in the literature,
emphasizing insights gained and model limitations.
The high operational complexity and the prevalent uncertainty
suggest that simulation modeling and simulation-based decision-making
could have a central role in the management of call centers.
We formulate some common decision problems and point to recently developed
simulation-based solution techniques.
We review recent work that supports modeling the primitive inputs
to a call center and highlight call center modeling difficulties.