Staff rostering in call centers providing employee transportation

We address the staff rostering problem in call centers with the goal of balancing operational cost, agent satisfaction and customer service objectives. In metropolitan cities such as Istanbul and Mumbai, call centers provide the transportation of their staff so that shuttle costs constitute a significant part of the operational costs. We develop a mixed integer programming model that incorporates the shuttle requirements at the beginning and end of the shifts into the agent-shift assignment decisions, while considering the skill sets of the agents, and other constraints due to workforce regulations and agent preferences. We analyze model solutions for a banking call center under various management priorities to understand the interactions among the conflicting objectives. We show that considering transportation costs as well as agent preferences in agent-shift assignments provides significant benefits in terms of both cost savings and employee satisfaction.     

解析《野性的呼唤》中的自然主义

杰克.伦敦是美国自然主义作家中的杰出代表,他的作品《野性的呼唤》则充分体现了战胜敌人后而存活所需的力量与勇气,表达了适者生存的原则。而巴克传奇经历及其主题思想的揭示对当今中国不能不说有其特定的社会教育意义。     

A call for action that cannot go to voicemail: Research activism to urgently improve Indigenous perinatal health and wellbeing

In this call to action, a coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, United States and Canada argue for the urgent need for adequately funded Indigenous-led solutions to perinatal health inequities for Indigenous families in well-resourced settler-colonial countries. Authors describe examples of successful community-driven programs making a difference and call on all peoples to support and resource Indigenous-led perinatal health services by providing practical actions for individuals and different groups.     

An assessment of GRAI Grids and their use in the Strathclyde Integration Method

The purpose of this paper is to present a critical assessment of GRAI Grids as a tool for improved manufacturing integration. GRAI Grids, a key component of the GRAI approach, form an integral part of the Strathclyde Integration Method SIM for manufacturing integration. The contribution of the paper is thus to provide a 'third party' view of the effectiveness of GRAI Grids as a modelling tool. The paper presents a brief overview of the GRAI approach, concentrating particularly on the Grids, and an overview of SIM, showing how GRAI Grids are used. The main section of the paper presents an assessment and critique of GRAI Grids. Several benefits and limitations of the Grid as used in SIM and some suggestions for extensions are presented. The paper concludes that the use of the GRAI Grid, within a methodology, provides a unique insight into the behaviour and design of manufacturing information systems and that those who criticize the technique perhaps do so from a lack of awareness of its concepts, principles and advantages.     

对《野性的呼唤》中巴克形象的再解读

《野性的呼唤》是美国著名作家杰克.伦敦的作品。小说描写一只名叫巴克的狗被骗卖到北方之后逐渐由狗变成狼的过程。该文通过对巴克形象的塑造,以狗喻人,来反映作者对现实“文明社会”的看法,阐述自己的人生哲学。     

零息回购转债：一种有效制约经理机会主义的国有股回购工具

本文认为,零息回购转债在制约经理人投资不足或投资过度方面的性能优于“增发后回购”、股转债等其它国有股回购方案。并且,无论国有股减持后是否仍占控股比例,股东是否决定赎回权的行使对零息回购转债制约经理机会主义的作用没有影响。不同于股转债,零息回购转债另一个优点是避免了巨额现金流出,不致令上市公司在回购后承担过重的利息负担和过大的财务风险。     

屈辞《招魂》新辨

楚辞《招魂》用于为楚怀王举行国丧活动中招魂仪式第一阶段。诗序叙巫觋扮演怀王亡魂、上帝、巫阳,交代招魂事由。招魂活动始于楚境旷野秦、楚交接灵车时,由巫阳招魂至郢都修门,转由巫官工祝引魂回故居。该诗是屈原在祭辞基础上改创而成。其题旨是:外陈四方之恶,内崇楚国之美;明招怀王之魂,暗寓忠君爱国之意。     

Global economy of signs and selves: A view of work regimes in call centers in the Philippines

Reflecting on the global nature of third-party offshore call center and its implications on the agent, this piece is an account of the researcher's own experience, observations, and interactions as a call center worker. Using the theoretical frame Global economy of signs and selves, weaving ideas from Scott Lash and John Urry, Pierre Bourdieu and Erving Goffman, the study looks at some dimensions and conditions of global service work experienced by Filipino agents. With the relocation of accounts offshore, call centers in the Philippines have given rise to a growing section of society required by the imperatives of their work to “defy” time and space, synchronizing their cycles and routines according to the rhythms and cycles of a distant social dimension and the imperatives of globalized production. Although relocation has allowed firms to reduce costs and make use of cheaper labor, the distance traversed by this new call center platform comes with some hidden costs, borne by workers, who may themselves take these other forms of work they deliver for granted. Highlighting under-emphasized, undervalued and misrecognized aspects of call center work, the study attempts to link the global, the local and the personal, while emphasizing the social and symbolic work involved in call center production.