Optimal balanced control for call centers |
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Authors: | Sandjai Bhulai Taoying Farenhorst-Yuan Bernd Heidergott Dinard van?der Laan |
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Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2. Department of Econometrics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3. Tinbergen Institute, and Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Abstract: | In this paper we study the optimal assignment of tasks to agents in a call center. For this type of problem, typically, no single deterministic and stationary (i.e., state independent and easily implementable) policy yields the optimal control, and mixed strategies are used. Other than finding the optimal mixed strategy, we propose to optimize the performance over the set of ??balanced?? deterministic periodic non-stationary policies. We provide a stochastic approximation algorithm that allows to find the optimal balanced policy by means of Monte Carlo simulation. As illustrated by numerical examples, the optimal balanced policy outperforms the optimal mixed strategy. |
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