Topic: Capacity Allocation and Scheduling in Two-Stage Service Systems with Multi-Class Customers
Speaker: HUANG Junfei, Associate Professor at Business School, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Host: WANG Yue, Lecturer at the Department of Supply Chain Management and System Engineering
Time and Date: 10:00-12:00, 21 Feb. 2024
Location: SOM 402
Abstract:
This paper considers a tandem queueing system, in which stage 1 has one station serving multiple classes of arriving customers with different service requirements and related delay costs, and stage 2 has multiple parallel stations, with each station providing one type of service. Each station has many statistically identical servers. The objective is to design a joint capacity allocation between stages and stations and a scheduling rule for different classes of customers to minimize the system’s long-run average cost. Using fluid approximation, we convert the stochastic problem into a fluid optimization problem and develop a solution procedure. Based on the solution to the fluid optimization problem, we propose a simple and easy-to-implement capacity allocation and scheduling policy, and establish its asymptotic optimality for the stochastic system. The policy has an explicit index-based scheduling rule that is independent of the arrival rates, and resource allocation is determined by the priority orders established between the classes and stations. We conduct numerical experiments to validate the accuracy of the fluid approximation and demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed policy. Tandem queueing systems are ubiquitous. Our results provide useful guidelines for the allocation of limited resources and the scheduling of customer service in those systems. Our proposed policy can improve the system’s operational efficiency and customers’ service quality.
Speaker’s Profile:
Prof. Junfei Huang joined the Department of Decisions, Operations, and Technology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013. His research interests are in asymptotic analysis and optimal control of queuing systems and their applications in services such as healthcare systems (e.g. emergency departments) and teleservices (e.g. telephone call centres.) His work has been published in journals such as Operations Research and Mathematics of Operations Research. His research awards include the Uriel G. Rothblum Prize for Excellent Work in Operations Research by the Operations Research Society of Israel and the MSOM Service Management SIG Best Paper Award.
