ABSTRACT
Integer programming (IP) models with binary variables have been successfully used in practice to design service systems and solve resource allocation problems, scheduling of airline crews, and aircrafts and supply chain management. This chapter begins with a review of modeling with binary variables. It then applies the IP models for location and distribution decisions in supply chains, airline scheduling, and workforce planning. The chapter reviews the basic queuing models in Operations Research and then applies them to the service setting of staffing at a call center. It presents models that can be used to characterize randomness in a process and specifically, it also presents models that characterize waiting lines, called queues. Fundamental to a queuing system is characterizing arrivals and services. A Poisson process is one that counts the number of events that occur over time. The chapter ends with a discussion of queuing models in service systems.
