Allocating flexible servers in serial systems with switching costs

Maria Mayorga (), Kevin Taaffe () and Ramesh Arumugam ()

Annals of Operations Research, 2009, vol. 172, issue 1, 242 pages

Abstract: Consider a firm that operates a make-to-order serial production system and employs a cross-trained workforce. We model such a firm as a tandem queuing system in which flexible servers can be allocated across stations, and assume that a switching cost is charged when servers move between stations. We show that even in the two-station two-server case the optimal policy follows a complex state-dependent structure that may be difficult to implement in practice. We propose three alternate heuristic policies and assess their performance. We show that a simpler policy which only moves one server can achieve close to optimal results. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Keywords: Flexible servers; Server allocation; Switching costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10479-009-0575-7

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