A simulation study of the operations of a telephone bureau

This paper presents a priority queueing situation: a telephone bureau which has to deal with two distinct classes of caller. The first group are making urgent calls which must be dealt with as soon as possible, while the second group are making a variety of different types of routine enquiry which are not considered to be as important. Management are concerned with a number of issues associated with the operations of their bureau, these include the levels of service offered to the different groups of caller, the effects of different levels of staffing, and the effects of changing the mix of call types. The use of applied probability theory to analyse this situation is briefly discussed, and then simulation proposed as a means to analyse the operations of the bureau. The development of this simulation is outlined, some typical results presented and its usefulness discussed.     

The application of microcomputers in production management

The findings reported result from a questionnaire survey, and a number of company interviews. Further questions which need to be answered are identified, and a research project to provide these answers is outlined.     

The use of formal inventory control models: A preliminary survey

Of the many papers and texts on the subject of inventory control, relatively few report the successful implementation of systems based on formal mathematical models developed with specific objectives in mind. This could be considered rather strange in the light of the relatively high number of papers reporting the development of models for dealing with a multitude of different hypothetical situations, and the widespread availability of computer systems capable of exploiting such models. Various reasons for this anomaly can be put forward. This paper reports the results of a preliminary survey designed to investigate this more deeply, and draws some necessarily tentative conclusions relating to factors contributing to the successful application of such systems.     

A comparison of applications of microcomputers in production

Earlier research has established that the full potential of microcomputers is not being achieved by production management in small companies. Moreover, questionnaire results and in-company interviews were used to support suggested reasons for this situation. This paper reports further work carried out to examine the issues raised in far more detail. Collaboration took place with nine separate companies over a range of applications. Three of these case studies are presented in detail, and general conclusions drawn relating both to these specific studies and to the total collaboration.     

Service quality in the legal profession: a review

Research into the management of professional service quality, other than in health care, has been very limited, despite being particularly problematical. This paper focuses on the interactive, highly customized and labour-intensive service offered by solicitors to their commercial and corporate clients. The intangible nature of legal services, the natures of the professionals themselves and the firms within which they operate, and the perceptions of risk brought to the service by the client create additional difficulties in managing the service and measuring client perceptions of it. Yet solicitors must understand the requirements of the group of clients they seek to serve in order to design their service to match those needs. Clients have to assume the technical competence of their solicitor. Moreover, they seek confidence when buying legal services. Our research, therefore, sought to gain an understanding of the process used by commercial and corporate clients when evaluating legal service, and of the factors that are key drivers in the creation of confidence.     

PORTFOLIO MODELING IN MULTIPLE-CRITERIA SITUATIONS UNDER UNCERTAINTY

There have been many models for portfolio selection, but most do not explicitly include uncertainty and multiple objectives. This paper presents an approach that includes these aspects using a form of stochastic integer programming with recourse. The method involves the use of a time-based decision tree structure called a “project tree.” Using this basic format, an illustrative six-project example is presented and analyzed. Various forms of objectives are discussed, ranging from the maximization of expected portfolio value to the maximization of the minimum weighted portfolio deviation from two goals. In each case, formulated numerical problems are given, and the solutions derived are presented. The approach is shown to be very flexible and capable of handling a variety of situations and objectives.