A market utility-based model for capacity scheduling in mass services

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goodale, JC; Verma, R; Pullman, ME
• 署名单位: University of Oregon; Utah System of Higher Education; University of Utah; Cornell University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 165-185
• 关键词: service design; service attributes; staff scheduling; service economics

摘要

Only a small set of employee scheduling articles have considered an objective of profit or contribution maximization, as opposed to the traditional objective of cost (including opportunity costs) minimization. In this article, we present one such formulation that is a market utility-based model for planning and scheduling in mass services (MUMS). MUMS is a holistic approach to market-based service capacity scheduling. The MUMS framework provides the structure for modeling the consequences of aligning competitive priorities and service attributes with an element of the firm's service infrastructure. We developed a new linear programming formulation for the shift-scheduling problem that uses market share information generated by customer preferences for service attributes. The shift-scheduling formulation within the framework of MUMS provides a business-level model that predicts the economic impact of the employee schedule. We illustrated the shift-scheduling model with empirical data, and then compared its results with models using service standard and productivity standard approaches. The result of the empirical analysis provides further justification for the development of the market-based approach. Last, we discuss implications of this methodology for future research.