We consider a firm that provides multiple services using both specialized and flexible capacity. The problem is formulated as a two-stage single-period stochastic program. The firm invests in capacity before the actual demand is known and optimally assigns capacity to customers when demand is...

We describe an approximation procedure to estimate the performance of a queueing system with two types of customers and two server categories. Specialized servers can process only one customer type, while flexible servers handle both types. The procedure divides the system's state space into...

Major airlines are selling increasing numbers of interline itineraries, in which flights operated by two or more airlines are combined and sold together. One reason for this increase is the rapid growth of airline alliances, which promote the purchase of interline itineraries and therefore...

Does cross-training workers allow a firm to achieve economies of scale when there is variability in the content of work, or does it create a workforce that performs many tasks with constant mediocrity? To address this question we integrate a model of a stochastic service system with models for...

We consider a firm that provides multiple services using both specialized and flexible capacity. The problem is formulated as a two-stage single-period stochastic program. The firm invests in capacity before the actual demand is known and optimally assigns capacity to customers when demand is...

We examine services in which customers encounter a gatekeeper who makes an initial diagnosis of the customer's problem and then may refer the customer to a specialist. The gatekeeper may also attempt to solve the problem, but the probability of treatment success decreases as the problem's...

This paper proposes and analyzes an integrated model of salesforce learning, product portfolio pricing and salesforce design. We consider a firm with a pool of sales representatives that is split into separate salesforces, one for each product. The salesforce assigned to each product is faced...

A well-studied problem in the literature on airline revenue (or yield) management is the optimal allocation of seat inventory among fare classes given a demand distribution for each class. In practice, the seat allocation decisions of one airline affect the passenger demands for seats on other...

When customers arrive, service providers often collect information to generate delay forecasts. We study how delay data-collection and forecasting systems can be designed to improve customer satisfaction. We assume that customers may be loss-averse in the sense that an increase in the expected...