Personnel scheduling: A literature review

Purpose – To examine the state of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) research in the last five years from the standpoint of existing methodologies. The state of research is assessed by examining the research design, number of hypothesis testing, research methods, data analysis techniques, data sources, level of analysis and country of authors.Design/methodology/approach – The review of SCM and logistics research is based on 442 papers published from 1999 to 2003 in the following three academic journals Journal of Business Logistics, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.Findings – Major findings show that there is an increase in the direct observation methods like case studies. In general, the research is more interpretive in nature. Survey method is still holding the highest position. More advanced techniques are being used for data analysis in empirical studies and there has been an increase in hypothesis tes...

Review of supply chain management and logistics research

Outpatient appointment systems in healthcare: A review of optimization studies

We study an overbooking model for scheduling arrivals at a medical facility under no-show behavior, with patients having different no-show probabilities and different weights. The scheduler has to assign the patients to time slots in such a way that she minimizes the expected weighted sum of the patients' waiting times and the doctor's idle time and overtime. We first consider the static problem, where the set of patients to be scheduled and their characteristics are known in advance. We partially characterize the optimal schedule and introduce a new sequencing rule that schedules patients according to a single index that is a function of their characteristics. Then we apply our theoretical results and conclusions from numerical experiments to sequential scheduling procedures. We propose a heuristic solution to the sequential scheduling problem, where requests for appointments come in gradually over time and the scheduler has to assign each patient to one of the remaining slots that are available in the schedule for a given day. We find that the no-show rate and patients' heterogeneity have a significant impact on the optimal schedule and should be taken under consideration.

Appointment scheduling with no-shows and overbooking

In this paper, JIT (Just-In-Time)-KANBAN literature survey was carried out and presented. The introductory section deals with the philosophy of JIT, and the concept involved in the push and pull system. The blocking mechanisms in the kanban system are also discussed elaborately. Besides these sections, the importance of measure of performance (MOP) and the application of the same with respect to JIT-KANBAN are presented. The recent trends in the JIT-KANBAN are discussed under the heading “Special cases”. In this review, 100 state-of-art research papers have been surveyed. The directions for the future works are also presented.

Literature review of JIT-KANBAN system

This study introduces a universal “Dome” appointment rule that can be parameterized through a planning constant for different clinics characterized by the environmental factors—no-shows, walk-ins, number of appointments per session, variability of service times, and cost of doctor’s time to patients’ time. Simulation and nonlinear regression are used to derive an equation to predict the planning constant as a function of the environmental factors. We also introduce an adjustment procedure for appointment systems to explicitly minimize the disruptive effects of no-shows and walk-ins. The procedure adjusts the mean and standard deviation of service times based on the expected probabilities of no-shows and walk-ins for a given target number of patients to be served, and it is thus relevant for any appointment rule that uses the mean and standard deviation of service times to construct an appointment schedule. The results show that our Dome rule with the adjustment procedure performs better than the traditional rules in the literature, with a lower total system cost calculated as a weighted sum of patients’ waiting time, doctor’s idle time, and doctor’s overtime. An open-source decision-support tool is also provided so that healthcare managers can easily develop appointment schedules for their clinical environment.

A universal appointment rule in the presence of no-shows and walk-ins

In this article, we study the newsvendor problem with endogenous setting of price and quoted lead-time. This problem can be observed in situations where a firm orders semi-finished product prior to the selling season and customizes the product in response to customer orders during the selling season. The total demand during the selling season and the lead-time required for customization are uncertain. The demand for the product depends not only on the selling price but also on the quoted lead-time. To set the quoted lead-time, the firm has to carefully balance the benefit of increasing demand as the quoted lead-time is reduced against the cost of increased tardiness. Our model enables the firm to determine the optimal selling price, quoted lead-time, and order quantity simultaneously, and provides a new set of insights to managers.

/pdf/ordering-pricing-and-lead-time-quotation-under-lead-time-and-424tuzvihg.pdf

Ordering, Pricing, and Lead-Time Quotation under Lead-Time and Demand Uncertainty

To control the production of different parts on a single flow line, managers can choose between the Single-kanban, Dual-kanban, and Conwip. This paper therefore compares the three different systems. The results show that Conwip consistently produces the shortest mean customer wait time and lowest total work-in-process. Our results also contradict the finding of a previous study, which showed that Dual-kanban performed better than Single-kanban. The different findings can, however, be attributed to the use of a material transfer policy, which favors the Dual-kanban modeled in the previous study. Our study shows that transferring replenished containers immediately to downstream stations, increasing the number of cards, and reducing the withdrawal cycle reduce the mean customer wait time significantly.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3147&context=lkcsb_research

Managing a Flow Line with Single-Kanban, Dual-Kanban or Conwip

Collaborative arrangements among members of the supply chain have received a great deal of interest in recent years as a means of reducing costs. One such arrangement is vendor managed inventory (VMI). VMI allows the vendor to make decisions concerning the quantity and timing of deliveries to the retailer. Such an arrangement offers the potential of a more efficient supply chain by removing the negative effects of retail ordering policies. A thorough review of the literature was conducted to identify factors likely to impact the performance of a VMI partnership. Computer simulation was used to study the effects of these factors from both the vendor's and retailer's perspectives. The results lend insight into the performance of VMI and guidance for managers as to the environments in which VMI is most effective.

Managing vendor inventory in a dual level distribution system

Article deposited after permission was granted by the executive assistant to the president & CEO of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals 03/09/2010.

/pdf/an-analysis-of-factors-affecting-cross-docking-operations-31tj5fgo77.pdf

Kum Khiong Yang

Papers

A universal appointment rule in the presence of no-shows and walk-ins

Ordering, Pricing, and Lead-Time Quotation under Lead-Time and Demand Uncertainty

Managing a Flow Line with Single-Kanban, Dual-Kanban or Conwip

Managing vendor inventory in a dual level distribution system

An Analysis of Factors Affecting Cross Docking Operations