Stochastic Models of Internal Mail Delivery Systems

Steven Nahmias and Michael H. Rothkopf
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Steven Nahmias: Department of Decision and Information Sciences, University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, California 95053
Michael H. Rothkopf: Energy Analysis Program, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720

Management Science, 1984, vol. 30, issue 9, 1113-1120

Abstract: This paper develops two stochastic models of an internal mail delivery system in which a single clerk picks up, sorts and delivers mail to a closed loop of offices. The two models differ in whether deliveries are made at scheduled times or not. For a model in which all mail picked up each round is sorted before the next delivery, we assume that mail is generated in the system by a stationary Poisson process and derive an expression for the expected delay between generation of a letter and its ultimate delivery. These results are then extended to systems in which letters are generated according to a stationary compound Poisson process and to multiple clerk delivery systems. A second model in which mail is delivered at scheduled times only is shown to be equivalent to a classical storage process. For this model, we derive bounds on the expected number of letters left unsorted at the start of a scheduled delivery and the expected delivery delay. This model is also generalized to multiclerk systems.

Keywords: service systems; mail delivery; stochastic models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1984
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:30:y:1984:i:9:p:1113-1120

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