Service providers and their customers are sometimes victims of failures caused by exogenous factors such as unexpected bad weather, power outages, or labor strikes. When such no-fault failures occur in confined zones, service providers may confine customers against their will if making...

Many services are delivered to a (large) number of customers simultaneously within a confined zone (e.g., restaurants, resorts, trains, and airplanes). Under unexpected high demand, customers experience discomfort from two major sources: (a) the that arises when too many customers (i.e.,...

Almost all research in appointment scheduling has focused on the trade-off between customer waiting times and server idle times. In this paper, we present an observation-based method for estimating the relative cost of the customer waiting time, which is a critical parameter for finding the...

This paper compares two types of appointment-scheduling policies for single providers: traditional and open-access. Under traditional scheduling, each of a specified number of patients per day is booked well in advance, but may not show up for his or her appointment. Under open-access...

We consider multiunit Vickrey auctions for procurement in supply chain settings. This is the first paper that incorporates transportation costs into auctions in a complex supply network. We first introduce an auction mechanism that makes simultaneous production and transportation decisions so...

Manufacturers can stimulate sales by a temporary wholesale price reduction for the retailer, a rebate directed toward consumers, or a combination of both. The trade-offs between these price promotions are analyzed, providing insights about their roles, profitability, and welfare properties....