Two Issues in Setting Call Centre Staffing Levels

Bert Chen and Shane Henderson

Annals of Operations Research, 2001, vol. 108, issue 1, 175-192

Abstract: Motivated by a problem facing the Police Communication Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, we consider the setting of staffing levels in a call centre with priority customers. The choice of staffing level over any particular time period (e.g., Monday from 8 am–9 am) relies on accurate arrival rate information. The usual method for identifying the arrival rate based on historical data can, in some cases, lead to considerable errors in performance estimates for a given staffing level. We explain why, identify three potential causes of the difficulty, and describe a method for detecting and addressing such a problem. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001

Keywords: forecast error; nonstationarity; conditional Poisson process; convexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1023/A:1016015213287

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