到达不确定呼叫中心人员配置的鲁棒优化模型

针对呼叫中心实际运营中顾客到达不确定的特点,采用鲁棒离散优化方法,建立呼叫中心人员配置的鲁棒模型。利用对偶原理将鲁棒模型转换易于求解的线性鲁棒对等式,通过调节模型中的鲁棒参数来权衡鲁棒解的保守性与最优性之间的关系,计算模型中约束违背概率上限来表示鲁棒解的可靠性。通过现实呼叫中心数据算例,验证了模型的有效性,分析了不同鲁棒水平下各时间段服务人员配置规律,以及系统最小成本与违背概率之间的权衡关系。最后,对到达扰动系数进行了敏感性分析。     

考虑等待提示策略的呼叫中心流体近似方法

向顾客公布需等待的排队时间用以缓解系统拥挤是目前呼叫中心运营管理的重要手段之一。为了有效刻画等待提示策略下顾客行为变化对呼叫系统性能的影响,采用流体近似方法建立了呼叫排队系统模型。首先,通过排队分析构造等待提示影响下排队行为框架,包含带有心理行为变化特征的多种行为要素概率函数;其次,利用流体方法构建了考虑顾客重拨影响的连续排队模型,并求解了稳态条件下的系统性能指标;最后,通过与仿真模型的对比,验证了该流体近似方法的有效性与精确性。研究结果对于带有等待时间提示的呼叫中心运营具有重要指导作用。     

Data-Driven Robust Chance Constrained Problems: A Mixture Model Approach

This paper discusses the mixture distribution-based data-driven robust chance constrained problem. We construct a data-driven mixture distribution-based uncertainty set from the perspective of simultaneously estimating higher-order moments. Then, we derive a reformulation of the data-driven robust chance constrained problem. As the reformulation is not a convex programming problem, we propose new and tight convex approximations based on the piecewise linear approximation method. We establish the theoretical foundation for these approximations. Finally, numerical results show that the proposed approximations are practical and efficient.     

联合订货下基于ø-散度的多产品库存鲁棒优化模型

针对多产品联合库存决策问题,在市场需求不确定条件下,建立了考虑联合订货成本的多产品库存鲁棒优化模型。针对不确定市场需求,采用一系列未知概率的离散情景进行描述,给出了基于最小最大准则的鲁棒对应模型,并证明了(s,S)库存策略的最优性。进一步,在仅知多产品市场需求历史数据基础上,采用基于ø-散度的数据驱动方法构建了满足一定置信度要求的关于未知需求概率分布的不确定集。在此基础上,为获得(s,S)库存策略的相关参数,运用拉格朗日对偶方法将所建模型等价转化为易于求解的数学规划问题。最后,通过数值计算分析了Kullback-Leibler散度和Cressie-Read散度以及不同的置信水平下的多产品库存绩效,并将其与真实分布下应用鲁棒库存策略得到的库存绩效进行对比。结果表明,需求分布信息的缺失虽然会导致一定的库存绩效损失,但损失值很小,表明基于文中方法得到的库存策略能够有效抑制需求不确定性扰动,具有良好的鲁棒性。     

Learning-based robust stabilization for reduced-order models of 2D and 3D Boussinesq equations

We present some results on the stabilization of reduced-order models (ROMs) for thermal fluids. The stabilization is achieved using robust Lyapunov control theory to design a new closure model that is robust to parametric uncertainties. Furthermore, the free parameters in the proposed ROM stabilization method are optimized using a data-driven multi-parametric extremum seeking (MES) algorithm. The 2D and 3D Boussinesq equations provide challenging numerical test cases that are used to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method.     

Designing a call center with an IVR (Interactive Voice Response)

A call center is a service operation that caters to customer needs via the telephone. Call centers typically consist of agents that serve customers, telephone lines, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) unit, and a switch that routes calls to agents. In this paper we study a Markovian model for a call center with an IVR. We calculate operational performance measures, such as the probability for a busy signal and the average wait time for an agent. Exact calculations of these measures are cumbersome and they lack insight. We thus approximate the measures in an asymptotic regime known as QED (Quality and Efficiency Driven) or the Halfin–Whitt regime, which accommodates moderate to large call centers. The approximations are both insightful and easy to apply (for up to 1000’s of agents). They yield, as special cases, known and novel approximations for the M/M/N/N (Erlang-B), M/M/S (Erlang-C) and M/M/S/N queue.     

Optimizing Bernoulli Routing Policies for Balancing Loads on Call Centers and Minimizing Transmission Costs

We address the problem of assigning probabilities at discrete time instants for routing toll-free calls to a given set of call centers to minimize a weighted sum of transmission costs and load variability at the call centers during the next time interval.We model the problem as a tripartite graph and decompose the finding of an optimal probability assignment in the graph into the following problems: (i) estimating the true arrival rates at the nodes for the last time period; (ii) computing routing probabilities assuming that the estimates are correct. We use a simple approach for arrival rate estimation and solve the routing probability assignment by formulating it as a convex quadratic program and using the affine scaling algorithm to obtain an optimal solution.We further address a practical variant of the problem that involves changing routing probabilities associated with k nodes in the graph, where k is a prespecified number, to minimize the objective function. This involves deciding which k nodes to select for changing probabilities and determining the optimal value of the probabilities. We solve this problem using a heuristic that ranks all subsets of k nodes using gradient information around a given probability assignment.The routing model and the heuristic are evaluated for speed of computation of optimal probabilities and load balancing performance using a Monte Carlo simulation. Empirical results for load balancing are presented for a tripartite graph with 99 nodes and 17 call center gates.     

Towards “zero abandonments” in call center performance

The call center industry is a big business in today's global economy. Staffing costs account for over half of a call center's total operations costs. Some large call centers, in practice, operate at very close to maximum capacity, believing that such an operations policy is efficient. However, by operating at levels close to 100% utilization, a call center is “living dangerously”. If, for example, call volumes even slightly exceed forecasts, customer calls will queue. As queue lengths and durations increase, customers will tend to abandon their calls. We provide some “rule-of-thumb” formulas that evaluate the cost of abandonments. These formulas may be used to justify an investment in additional agents required to improve the quality of service and reduce abandonments. Standard Erlang-C queueing formulas imply that abandonments can be significantly reduced with a small investment in additional agents. Thus, by improving customer service and hiring additional staff, a call center can improve profitability. We illustrate our analysis with realistic data, based on our work with large-scale customer service centers.     

A Robust Optimization Approach to Dynamic Pricing and Inventory Control with no Backorders

In this paper, we present a robust optimization formulation for dealing with demand uncertainty in a dynamic pricing and inventory control problem for a make-to-stock manufacturing system. We consider a multi-product capacitated, dynamic setting. We introduce a demand-based fluid model where the demand is a linear function of the price, the inventory cost is linear, the production cost is an increasing strictly convex function of the production rate and all coefficients are time-dependent. A key part of the model is that no backorders are allowed. We show that the robust formulation is of the same order of complexity as the nominal problem and demonstrate how to adapt the nominal (deterministic) solution algorithm to the robust problem.     

Evolution of two concentrated vortices in a two-dimensional bounded domain

We prove that two initially concentrated vortices with opposite vorticity of an incompressible ideal fluid moving in a two-dimensional bounded domain, remain concentrated during the time. The motion of their centers converges to the solution of the point vortex model with the corresponding initial conditions.     

Dynamic rate Erlang-A queues

The multi-server queue with non-homogeneous Poisson arrivals and customer abandonment is a fundamental dynamic rate queueing model for large-scale service systems such as call centers and hospitals. Scaling the arrival rates and number of servers arises naturally when a manager updates a staffing schedule in response to a forecast of increased customer demand. Mathematically, this type of scaling ultimately gives us the fluid and diffusion limits as found in Mandelbaum et al. (Queueing Syst 30(1):149–201, 1998) for Markovian service networks. These asymptotics were inspired by the Halfin and Whitt (Oper Res 29(3):567–588, 1981) scaling for multi-server queues. In this paper, we provide a review and an in-depth analysis of the Erlang-A queueing model. We prove new results about cumulant moments of the Erlang-A queue, the transient behavior of the Erlang-A limit cycle, new fluid limits for the delay time of a virtual customer, and optimal static staffing policies for healthcare systems. We combine tools from queueing theory, ordinary differential equations, complex analysis, cumulant moments, orthogonal polynomials, and dynamic optimization to obtain new insights about this fundamental queueing model.     

Dynamic Routing and Admission Control in High-Volume Service Systems: Asymptotic Analysis via Multi-Scale Fluid Limits

Motivated by applications in telephone call centers, we consider a service system model with m customer classes and r server pools. The model is one with doubly stochastic arrivals, which means that the m-vector λ of instantaneous arrival rates is allowed to vary both temporally and stochastically. Two levels of dynamic control are considered: customers may be either blocked or accepted at the time of their arrival, and then accepted customers of each class must be routed, either immediately upon acceptance or after some period of waiting, to a server pool that is qualified to handle that class. Customers who are made to wait before commencement of their service are liable to defect. The objective is to minimize the expected sum of blocking costs, waiting costs and defection costs over a fixed and finite planning horizon. We consider an asymptotic parameter regime in which (i) the arrival rates, service rates and defection rates are uniformly accelerated by a large factor κ, then (ii) arrival rates are increased by an additional factor g(κ), and the number of servers in each pool is increased by g(κ) as well. This produces a separation of time scales, justifying a pointwise stationary stochastic fluid approximation for our original system model. In the stochastic fluid approximation, optimal admission control and routing decisions are determined by a simple linear program that uses the current arrival rate vector λ as data. We explain how to implement the fluid model's optimal control policy in our original service system context, and prove that the proposed implementation is asymptotically optimal in the first-order sense. AMS subject classification: 60K30, 90B15, 90B36     

Robust optimization of uncertain multistage inventory systems with inexact data in decision rules

In production-inventory problems customer demand is often subject to uncertainty. Therefore, it is challenging to design production plans that satisfy both demand and a set of constraints on e.g. production capacity and required inventory levels. Adjustable robust optimization (ARO) is a technique to solve these dynamic (multistage) production-inventory problems. In ARO, the decision in each stage is a function of the data on the realizations of the uncertain demand gathered from the previous periods. These data, however, are often inaccurate; there is much evidence in the information management literature that data quality in inventory systems is often poor. Reliance on data “as is” may then lead to poor performance of “data-driven” methods such as ARO. In this paper, we remedy this weakness of ARO by introducing a model that treats past data itself as an uncertain model parameter. We show that computational tractability of the robust counterparts associated with this extension of ARO is still maintained. The benefits of the new model are demonstrated by a numerical test case of a well-studied production-inventory problem. Our approach is also applicable to other ARO models outside the realm of production-inventory planning.     

Morrey’s Conjecture for the Planar Volumetric-Isochoric Split: Least Rank-One Convex Energy Functions

Sensor placement and feature selection are critical steps in engineering, modeling, and data science that share a common mathematical theme: the selected measurements should enable solution of an inverse problem. Most real-world systems of interest are nonlinear, yet the majority of available techniques for feature selection and sensor placement rely on assumptions of linearity or simple statistical models. We show that when these assumptions are violated, standard techniques can lead to costly over-sensing without guaranteeing that the desired information can be recovered from the measurements. In order to remedy these problems, we introduce a novel data-driven approach for sensor placement and feature selection for a general type of nonlinear inverse problem based on the information contained in secant vectors between data points. Using the secant-based approach, we develop three efficient greedy algorithms that each provide different types of robust, near-minimal reconstruction guarantees. We demonstrate them on two problems where linear techniques consistently fail: sensor placement to reconstruct a fluid flow formed by a complicated shock–mixing layer interaction and selecting fundamental manifold learning coordinates on a torus.

     

多目标应急物流中心选址的鲁棒优化模型

针对重大突发事件的应急物资救援,研究了应急物流中心的选址及应急物资的调运问题。利用离散的情景集合描述受灾点应急物资需求的不确定性以及应急物资运输成本和运输时间的不确定性,同时考虑应急救援成本和应急救援时间两个目标,建立了多目标应急物流中心选址的确定型模型和鲁棒优化模型。为将多目标问题转化为单目标问题,利用成本单目标和时间单目标的最优结果将多目标转化为相对值再加权处理,该方法既可消除多个目标之间的单位及数量级差异,还可以根据问题的数据变化进行动态调整。以提供应急物资救援服务的设施作为编码,设计了一种通用的混合蛙跳算法。为检验模型和算法的有效性,设计了一个多情景的算例,结果表明两个模型和算法具备良好的可行性和有效性,且鲁棒优化模型能较好地保持对各种不确定性的抗干扰能力;最后,讨论分析了成本偏好权重和鲁棒约束系数的影响,结果表明可根据成本偏好权重的取值范围来区分各种应急救援阶段,体现不同救援阶段的救援要求及特征,并给出了成本偏好权重和鲁棒约束系数的取值建议。     

Data-Driven Tight Frame Construction for Impulsive Noise Removal

The method of data-driven tight frame has been shown very useful in image restoration problems.We consider in this paper extending this important technique,by incorporating L₁ data fidelity into the original data-driven model,for removing impulsive noise which is a very common and basic type of noise in image data.The model contains three variables and can be solved through an efficient iterative alternating minimization algorithm in patch implementation,where the tight frame is dynamically updated.It constructs a tight frame system from the input corrupted image adaptively,and then removes impulsive noise by the derived system.We also show that the sequence generated by our algorithm converges globally to a stationary point of the optimization model.Numerical experiments and comparisons demonstrate that our approach performs well for various kinds of images.This benefits from its data-driven nature and the learned tight frames from input images capture richer image structures adaptively.     

Robust game theory

We present a distribution-free model of incomplete-information games, both with and without private information, in which the players use a robust optimization approach to contend with payoff uncertainty. Our ``robust game' model relaxes the assumptions of Harsanyi's Bayesian game model, and provides an alternative distribution-free equilibrium concept, which we call ``robust-optimization equilibrium,' to that of the ex post equilibrium. We prove that the robust-optimization equilibria of an incomplete-information game subsume the ex post equilibria of the game and are, unlike the latter, guaranteed to exist when the game is finite and has bounded payoff uncertainty set. For arbitrary robust finite games with bounded polyhedral payoff uncertainty sets, we show that we can compute a robust-optimization equilibrium by methods analogous to those for identifying a Nash equilibrium of a finite game with complete information. In addition, we present computational results. The research of the author was partially supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and by the Singapore-MIT Alliance. The research of the author was partially supported by the Singapore-MIT Alliance.     

Univalent Functions in Two-Dimensional Free Boundary Problems

The main goal of the paper is to bring together methods of the classical theory of univalent functions and some problems of fluid mechanics. Our interest centers on free boundary problems. We study the time evolution of the free boundary of a viscous fluid in the zero- and nonzero-surface-tension models for planar flows in Hele-Shaw cells either with an extending to infinity free boundary or with a bounded free boundary. We consider special classes of univalent functions that admit an explicit geometric interpretation to characterize the shape of the free interface. Another model is two-dimensional solidification/melting of a nucleus in a forced flow.     

Bayesian Analysis of Abandonment in Call Center Operations

In this paper, we consider the modeling and the inference of abandonment behavior in call centers. We present several time to event modeling strategies, develop Bayesian inference for posterior and predictive analyses, and discuss implications on call center staffing. Different family of distributions, piecewise time to abandonment models, and mixture models are introduced, and their posterior analysis with censored abandonment data is carried out using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We illustrate the implementation of the proposed models using real call center data, present additional insights that can be obtained from the Bayesian analysis, and discuss implications for different customer profiles. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

不确定环境下应急救援供应链鲁棒优化模型

鉴于灾害救援运作的紧迫性和重要性,考虑需求、供应、成本等参数的不确定性,构建一个由供应商、救援配送中心和受灾区域构成的三级应急救援供应链,旨在确定救援产品数量及救援配送中心的合适位置,以最小化救援供应链总成本,最大化受灾区域满意水平为目标,采用区间数据鲁棒优化方法处理模型的不确定性,应用情景随机规划降低鲁棒优化的计算难度,最后给出一个地震案例的具体数据来证明所提救援供应链鲁棒优化模型的有效性和可行性。实验结果表明,需求保守度的变化对目标函数值的影响大于供给和成本保守度的变化,可为应急救援决策者调整不确定参数保守度提供理论支持。