Staffing geographically distributed service facilities with itinerant personnel
We address the problem of designing and staffing service facilities for a geographically distributed population of independent customers. Capacitated gravity models are used to represent a customer's selection of service facility. Analytical models and simulation are used to estimate service levels that would occur with alternative staffing levels and hours of operation. Integer programming is used to determine staffing patterns. We illustrate how these tools are used in concert to plan the statewide location and operation of drivers examination centers with combinations of fixed and itinerant staff. Governmental agencies, health care providers, educational institutions and businesses often operate satellite facilities and choose to staff them on a periodic basis, possibly using personnel from several different locations. The geographical distribution of customers, locations of facilities, hours of operation, and service levels all affect the amount of business that would be conducted at the different service sites. Usage patterns may exhibit seasonal, day-of-week, and time-of-day fluctuations. Staffing levels affect the efficiency of service. We formulate the staffing problem to minimize the costs of achieving specified customer-service criteria while creating regular periodic schedules for operations at geographically distributed service sites that are staffed by itinerant staff. Spatial-location (gravity models), queueing models, and mathematical programming models are used together to solve the staffing problem and to explore the consequences of different service criteria and staffing rules.
staffing scheduling management of service operations