Improving the Utilization of Front-Line Service Delivery System Personnel*

There are two types of work typically performed in services which differ in the degree of control management has over when the work must be done. Serving customers, an activity that can occur only when customers are in the system is, by its nature, uncontrollable work. In contrast, the execution of controllable work does not require the presence of customers, and is work over which management has some degree of temporal control. This paper presents two integer programming models for optimally scheduling controllable work simultaneously with shifts. One model explicitly defines variables for the times at which controllable work may be started, while the other uses implicit modeling to reduce the number of variables. In an initial experiment of 864 test problems, the latter model yielded optimal solutions in approximately 81 percent of the time required by the former model. To evaluate the impact on customer service of having front-line employees perform controllable work, a second experiment was conducted simulating 5, 832 service delivery systems. The results show that controllable work offers a useful means of improving labor utilization. Perhaps more important, it was found that having front-line employees perform controllable work did not degrade the desired level of customer service.     

Schedule Recovery: Unplanned Absences in Service Operations*

The U.S. service sector loses 2.3% of all scheduled labor hours to unplanned absences, but in some industries, the total cost of unplanned absences approaches 20% of payroll expense. The principal reasons for unscheduled absences (personal illness and family issues) are unlikely to abate anytime soon. Despite this, most labor scheduling systems continue to assume perfect attendance. This oversight masks an important but rarely addressed issue in services management: how to recover from short‐notice, short‐term reductions in planned capacity. In this article, we model optimal responses to unplanned employee absences in multi‐server queueing systems that provide discrete, pay‐per‐use services for impatient customers. Our goal is to assess the performance of alternate absence recovery strategies under various staffing and scheduling regimes. We accomplish this by first developing optimal labor schedules for hypothetical service environments with unreliable workers. We then simulate unplanned employee absences, apply an absence recovery model, and compute system profits. Our absence recovery model utilizes recovery strategies such as holdover overtime, call‐ins, and temporary workers. We find that holdover overtime is an effective absence recovery strategy provided sufficient reserve capacity (maximum allowable work hours minus scheduled hours) exists. Otherwise, less precise and more costly absence recovery methods such as call‐ins and temporary help service workers may be needed. We also find that choices for initial staffing and scheduling policies, such as planned overtime and absence anticipation, significantly influence the likelihood of successful absence recovery. To predict the effectiveness of absence recovery policies under alternate staffing/scheduling strategies and operating environments, we propose an index based on initial capacity reserves.     

数据采掘技术与信息服务

以信息服务为目的,较详细的介绍了数据采掘技术的过程、方法及工具,并对信息服务的流程、现代化手段和发展方向以及CIO在信息服务中的地位作用等作了简单的论述。     

社区公益广告刍议

社区公益广告是我国新时期发展起来的一种公益广告形式,它除了具有一般公益广告的特征之外,还具有自己的特征,如区城性、贴近性、群众性、人性化等特征。社区公益广告的内容不但丰富,形式也多样。大力发展社区公益广告,对于加强我国精神文明建设具有十分重要的意义。     

试论网络服务提供商网络名誉侵权责任的认定

网络环境下的名誉侵权具有较强的交互性、复杂性、隐匿性特征,因此与传统名誉侵权的构成要件存在着一定差异。网络服务提供商与侵权行为的关联性,使网络环境下的名誉侵权行为具有特殊性。应以其对侵权行为内容的控制力为依据,探究网络服务提供商在名誉侵权中的主体地位及其应承担的法律责任。     

出版企业品牌运营创新研究

随着市场环境的变化,出版业的竞争焦点已从最初的产品竞争开始转向品牌竞争。出版企业加强品牌运营是应对外部环境变化的要求,也是自身可持续发展的要求,更是消费者选择的必然要求。出版企业在品牌运营过程中要注重创新,可以重点从品牌观念创新、品牌业务创新、品牌管理创新等方面着手采取措施,提高品牌的知名度。     

服务型政府宪政内涵诠释

转变传统的管制型政府,建构全新的服务型政府治理模式是中国政府行政发展的必然方向。服务型政府蕴含着丰富的宪法元素,具体来讲服务型政府是质量政府、法治政府、民主政府、有限政府、“阳光”政府、诚信政府、便民政府、效能政府和责任政府。建构服务型政府可以为经济发展提供良好的市场环境．为经济和社会的协调发展提供基本而有保障的公共产品和有效的公共服务。     

服务质量、顾客满意与顾客价值的关系剖析--基于电信产业的整合框架

众所公认 ,服务质量、顾客满意和顾客价值已经成为任何企业竞争成败的关键因素 ,也正日益成为顾客中心时代的竞争焦点。然而 ,目前有关的研究不仅十分零散 ,而且有关研究所得出的结论也不尽相同。本文试图以相关研究所忽视的重要产业———中国电信产业为背景 ,通过对手机市场的考察 ,运用基于偏最小二乘法 (PartialLeastSquare ,PLS)的结构方程模型 (StructuralEquationModel,SEM ) ,构造出服务质量、顾客满意与顾客价值的整合框架 ,系统地剖析三者之间的因果关系 ,特别是顾客价值对服务质量与顾客满意之间的关系的调节效应     

德鲁兹社团与以色列国家的关系

在以色列生活着13万德鲁兹人,与境内其他阿拉伯人不同,早在英国委任统治时期德鲁兹社团就跟犹太社团有着比较友好的关系,以色列建国后这种关系得到持续发展。从1956年起德鲁兹社团被正式纳入以色列义务兵役制内,与以色列国家结成“血盟”。作为回报,政府向德鲁兹社团承诺了平等和一体化,并利用国家机器,从历史、宗教、教育、习俗等方面促进独立的德鲁兹民族建设,帮助德鲁兹社团构建“以色列一德鲁兹”的身份认同。但由于以色列犹太国家的性质所限,德鲁兹社团的一体化进程面临诸多挑战。     

大学生志愿精神的培育与弘扬

大学生志愿者通过志愿服务向世人展现了“奉献、友爱、互助、进步”的志愿精神和当代青年积极向上的精神面貌。现时代,高校如何在大学生中培育、弘扬、传承志愿精神是要关注的课题。对高校志愿服务工作的调研．有助于了解当前高校志愿精神培育和弘扬情况。培育大学生的志愿精神,就要重视发挥志愿服务和志愿精神在高校德育工作中的作用,建立良好的志愿服务组织和管理机制,创新培养和弘扬志愿精神的载体和形式,提升志愿服务组织者的专业水平,完善志愿服务的保障机制。