Scaling and modeling of call center arrivals

Xiaowei Zhang; L. Jeff Hong; Jiheng Zhang

doi:10.1109/WSC.2014.7019913

Scaling and modeling of call center arrivals

Xiaowei Zhang
, L. Jeff Hong
, Jiheng Zhang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Poisson process has been an integral part of many models for the arrival process to a telephone call centers. However, several publications in recent years suggest the presence of a significant 'overdisperson' relative to the Poisson process in real-life call center arrival data. In this paper, we study the overdispersion in the context of 'heavy traffic' and identify a critical factor that characterizes the stochastic variability of the arrivals to their averages. We refer to such a factor as the scaling parameter and it potentially has a profound impact on the design of staffing rules. We propose an new model to capture the scaling parameter in this paper.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014
Editors	Andreas Tolk, Levent Yilmaz, Saikou Y. Diallo, Ilya O. Ryzhov
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages	476-485
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Electronic)	9781479974863
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2014.7019913
State	Published - Jan 23 2015
Externally published	Yes
Event	2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014 - Savannah, United States Duration: Dec 7 2014 → Dec 10 2014

Publication series

Name	Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference
Volume	2015-January
ISSN (Print)	0891-7736

Other

Other	2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014
Country/Territory	United States
City	Savannah
Period	12/7/14 → 12/10/14

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.

Publisher link

10.1109/WSC.2014.7019913

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Zhang, X., Hong, L. J., & Zhang, J. (2015). Scaling and modeling of call center arrivals. In A. Tolk, L. Yilmaz, S. Y. Diallo, & I. O. Ryzhov (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014 (pp. 476-485). Article 7019913 (Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference; Vol. 2015-January). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2014.7019913

Scaling and modeling of call center arrivals. / Zhang, Xiaowei; Hong, L. Jeff; Zhang, Jiheng.
Proceedings of the 2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014. ed. / Andreas Tolk; Levent Yilmaz; Saikou Y. Diallo; Ilya O. Ryzhov. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2015. p. 476-485 7019913 (Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference; Vol. 2015-January).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Zhang, X, Hong, LJ & Zhang, J 2015, Scaling and modeling of call center arrivals. in A Tolk, L Yilmaz, SY Diallo & IO Ryzhov (eds), Proceedings of the 2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014., 7019913, Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference, vol. 2015-January, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., pp. 476-485, 2014 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2014, Savannah, United States, 12/7/14. https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2014.7019913

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Scaling and modeling of call center arrivals

Abstract

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