Optimizing daily agent scheduling in a multiskill call center
Optimizing daily agent scheduling in a multiskill call center
We examine and compare simulation-based algorithms for solving the agent scheduling problem in a multiskill call center. This problem consists in minimizing the total costs of agents under constraints on the expected service level per call type, per period, and aggregated. We propose a solution approach that combines simulation with integer or linear programming, with cut generation. In our numerical experiments with realistic problem instances, this approach performs better than all other methods proposed previously for this problem. We also show that the two-step approach, which is the standard method for solving this problem, sometimes yield solutions that are highly suboptimal and inferior to those obtained by our proposed method.
call center, stochastic optimization, staffing, scheduling, service level, cutting plane method
822-832
Avramidis, Athanassios N.
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Chan, Wyean
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Gendreau, Michel
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L’Ecuyer, Pierre
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Pisacane, Ornella
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1 February 2010
Avramidis, Athanassios N.
d6c4b6b6-c0cf-4ed1-bbe1-a539937e4001
Chan, Wyean
a586189c-9ade-4243-bb4a-0749c3950b82
Gendreau, Michel
9b14cc56-9176-4739-8c11-6de1dfed2834
L’Ecuyer, Pierre
3fb7809b-81c8-4b61-8928-0de33c859a60
Pisacane, Ornella
235ee1ba-eb65-480e-ad3f-29870362d794
Avramidis, Athanassios N., Chan, Wyean, Gendreau, Michel, L’Ecuyer, Pierre and Pisacane, Ornella
(2010)
Optimizing daily agent scheduling in a multiskill call center.
European Journal of Operational Research, 200 (3), .
(doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2009.01.042).
Abstract
We examine and compare simulation-based algorithms for solving the agent scheduling problem in a multiskill call center. This problem consists in minimizing the total costs of agents under constraints on the expected service level per call type, per period, and aggregated. We propose a solution approach that combines simulation with integer or linear programming, with cut generation. In our numerical experiments with realistic problem instances, this approach performs better than all other methods proposed previously for this problem. We also show that the two-step approach, which is the standard method for solving this problem, sometimes yield solutions that are highly suboptimal and inferior to those obtained by our proposed method.
Text
scheduling-multiskill_EJOR.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Published date: 1 February 2010
Keywords:
call center, stochastic optimization, staffing, scheduling, service level, cutting plane method
Organisations:
Operational Research
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 149997
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/149997
ISSN: 0377-2217
PURE UUID: 953cb063-598a-48be-bf36-0a2e915bad4c
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Date deposited: 04 May 2010 12:17
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:53
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Contributors
Author:
Wyean Chan
Author:
Michel Gendreau
Author:
Pierre L’Ecuyer
Author:
Ornella Pisacane
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