Call-Center Labor Cross-Training: It’s a Small World After All
提出用平均最短路径长度指标预测呼叫中心交叉培训结构对客户等待时间的影响，为设计高效交叉培训方案提供简单方法。
It is well known that flexibility can be created in manufacturing and service operations by using multipurpose production sources such as cross-trained labor, flexible machines, or flexible factories. We focus on flexible service centers, such as inbound call centers with cross-trained agents, and model them as parallel queueing systems with flexible servers. We propose a new approach to analyzing flexibility arising from the multifunctionality of sources of production. We create a work sharing (WS) network model for which its average shortest path length (APL) metric can predict the more effective of two alternative cross-training structures in terms of customer waiting times. We show that the APL metric of small world network (SWN) theory is one simple deterministic solution approach to the complex stochastic problem of designing effective workforce cross-training structures in call centers.