Modeling and simulation of call centers

In this review, we introduce key notions and describe the decision problems commonly encountered in call center management. Main themes are the central role of uncertainty throughout the decision hierarchy and the many operational complexities and relationships between decisions. We make connections...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Avramidis, A.N., L'Ecuyer, P.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Analytical models
Costs
Decision making
Marketing and sales
North America
Routing
Switches
Telephony
Uncertainty
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Description
Summary:In this review, we introduce key notions and describe the decision problems commonly encountered in call center management. Main themes are the central role of uncertainty throughout the decision hierarchy and the many operational complexities and relationships between decisions. We make connections to analytical models in the literature, emphasizing insights gained and model limitations. The high operational complexity and the prevalent uncertainty suggest that simulation modeling and simulation-based decision making could have a central role in the management of call centers. We formulate some common decision problems and point to recently developed simulation-based solution techniques. We review recent work that supports modeling the primitive inputs to a call center and highlight call center modeling difficulties.
ISSN:0891-7736
1558-4305
DOI:10.1109/WSC.2005.1574247