Wait-Time Predictors for Customer Service Systems with Time-Varying Demand and Capacity

Rouba Ibrahim () and Ward Whitt ()
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Rouba Ibrahim: Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1G5, Canada
Ward Whitt: Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027

Operations Research, 2011, vol. 59, issue 5, 1106-1118

Abstract: We develop new, improved real-time delay predictors for many-server service systems with a time-varying arrival rate, a time-varying number of servers, and customer abandonment. We develop four new predictors, two of which exploit an established deterministic fluid approximation for a many-server queueing model with those features. These delay predictors can be used to make delay announcements. We use computer simulation to show that the proposed predictors outperform previous predictors.

Keywords: delay prediction; delay announcements; simulation; time-varying arrival rates; time-varying number of servers; nonstationary queues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:oropre:v:59:y:2011:i:5:p:1106-1118

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