Fluid approximations for a priority call center with time-varying arrivals

Ahmad D. Ridley, Michael C. Fu, William A. Massey

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

We model a call center as a preemptive-resume priority queue with time-varying arrival rates and two priority classes of customers. The low priority customers have a dynamic priority where they become high priority if their waiting-time exceeds a given service-level time. The performance of the call center is measured by the mean number in system for the two customer classes. A fluid approximation is proposed to estimate the mean number in system for each class. The quality of the approximation is tested by comparing it with a stochastic simulation model of the system. Finally, using the fluid approximations, we discuss how to compute the mean number in system for each class and estimate the overall staffing level, or number of agents.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1817-1823
Number of pages7
JournalWinter Simulation Conference Proceedings
Volume2
StatePublished - 2003
EventProceedings of the 2003 Simulation Conference: Driving Innovation - New Orleans, LA, United States
Duration: Dec 7 2003Dec 10 2003

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Chemical Health and Safety
  • Applied Mathematics

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