Scheduling and Sequencing Arrivals to an Appointment System
研究了单服务器预约系统中顾客到达的最优排程与排序方法，以最小化顾客等待和服务器加班的总成本，适用于手术室、军事训练和电信服务等场景。
The authors develop methods for optimally scheduling and sequencing customer arrivals to a single-server appointment system. Customers are characterized by probabilistic service times with distinct distributions, and the server works according to a first-come, first-served discipline. A customer may fail to show for an appointment with known probability, but all arriving customers are assumed to be punctual. Costs are incurred at a specified rate per unit time that each customer waits for service, and an additional cost is incurred for every unit of time that the server operates beyond a scheduled closing time. The objective is to minimize the combined costs of customer waiting and server overtime. Possible applications include scheduling surgeons to operating suites, scheduling military aircraft to training ranges, and scheduling service activities for telecommunication technicians.