-
作者：Gans, Noah; Zhou, Yong-Pin
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle
摘要：Companies may choose to outsource parts, but not all, of their call-center operations. In some cases, they classify customers as high or low value, serving the former with their in-house operations and routing the latter to an outsourcer. Typically, they impose service-level constraints on the time each type of customer waits on hold. This paper considers four schemes for routing low-value calls between the client company and the outsourcer. These schemes vary in the complexity of their routin...
-
作者：Green, Linda V.; Soares, Joao
作者单位：Columbia University; Universidade de Coimbra
摘要：In this note we present algorithms that compute, exactly or approximately, time-dependent waiting time tail probabilities and the time-dependent expected waiting time in M(t)/M/s(t) queuing systems.
-
作者：Liberopoulos, George; Kozanidis, George; Tsarouhas, Panagiotis
作者单位：University of Thessaly
摘要：We develop a model of a failure-prone, bufferless, paced, automatic transfer line in which material flows through a number of workstations in series, receiving continuous processing along each workstation. When a workstation fails, it stops operating, and so do all the other workstations upstream of it. The quality of the material trapped in the stopped workstations deteriorates with time. If this material remains immobilized beyond a certain critical time, its quality becomes unacceptable and...
-
作者：Liu, Liming; Shang, Weixin; Wu, Shaohua
作者单位：Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
摘要：When two firms compete for service-sensitive demands based on their product availability, their actions will affect the future market share reallocation. This problem was first studied by Hall and Porteus (2000) using a dynamic game model. We extend their work by incorporating a general demand model, which enables us to obtain properties that reveal the dynamics of the game and the behavior of the players. In particular, we provide conditions under which the market share of a firm has a positi...
-
作者：Taylor, Terry A.; Plambeck, Erica L.
作者单位：Columbia University; Dartmouth College
摘要：Because of long lead times associated with product development and building capacity a supplier must initiate investment in capacity when the product development effort is ongoing. Because the product is ill defined at this point in time, the buyer is unable to commit to the future terms of trade through a court-enforceable contract. Instead, to provide incentives for capacity investment, the buyer informally promises future terms of trade. The prospect of future interaction creates an incenti...
-
作者：Roth, Aleda V.
作者单位：Clemson University
摘要：T his paper sets the stage for the special issue on the application of empirical science in operations management (OM). It highlights the contributions that empirical science can make to operations management research and practice. In particular, the role of theory building and testing as a motivation for OM empirical research is emphasized. The paper provides a brief history of the empirical tradition in OM and the scholars who were the early pioneers. The paper also gives a brief overview of...
-
作者：Fisher, Marshall
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania
摘要：I suggest that the prospering fields of physics, medicine, and finance illustrate the value of a strong empirical dimension to research that is well integrated with theoretical research. I use empirical research in these fields to formulate a framework for classifying empirical research and illustrate that framework with a few selected examples in operations management. I offer some advice on data sources and approaches to conducting empirical research and suggest ways strengthening empirical ...
-
作者：Chen, Hong; Frank, Murray Z.; Wu, Owen Q.
作者单位：University of British Columbia; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
摘要：This paper examines the inventories of publicly traded U.S. retail and wholesale companies between 1981 and 2004. First, we document that inventory holdings have been reduced. The median of wholesale inventory holding periods was reduced from 73 days to 49 days. Retail inventory did not start to decline until about 1995. Second, we document that firms with abnormally high inventories have abnormally poor long-term stock returns. Third, we illustrate these effects for the cases of Wal-Mart, 7-E...
-
作者：Cachon, Gerard P.; Randall, Taylor; Schmidt, Glen M.
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania; Utah System of Higher Education; University of Utah
摘要：The bullwhip effect is the phenomenon of increasing demand variability in the supply chain from downstream echelons (retail) to upstream echelons (manufacturing). The objective of this study is to document the strength of the bullwhip effect in industry-level U.S. data. In particular, we say an industry exhibits the bullwhip effect if the variance of the inflow of material to the industry (what macroeconomists often refer to as the variance of an industry's production) is greater than the vari...
-
作者：Tucker, Anita L.
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania
摘要：This paper investigates the conditions under which frontline employees take initiative to improve their work systems to prevent operational failures. Drawing on the system improvement and team learning literatures, we develop a framework of frontline system improvement and test it using survey data from 37 workgroups. We find that psychological safety-the belief that one can talk about errors without risk of punishment- and problem-solving efficacy-the belief that the organization will support...
