Service level

About: Service level is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7647 publications have been published within this topic receiving 126093 citations. The topic is also known as: service level.

A goal programming model for the siting of multilevel EMS systems

Abstract: Facility siting models known as location covering techniques have proven to be useful particularly for emergency medical services (EMS) planning, given the importance of ambulances responding to demand within some maximum time constraint. These models represent a set of methods which focus the health planner's attention on the access of people to health care, since they attempt to “cover” people in need of service within some specified time standard. This research develops a technique for the locational planning of sophisticated EMS systems, characterized by multiple levels of emergency health services. Specifically, a two-tiered system with “basic life support” and “advanced life support” capabilities is modeled as a goal program. By applying location covering techniques within a goal programming framework, this study develops a method for the siting of multilevel EMS systems so that (1) each service level maximizes coverage of its own demand population, and (2) “back-up” coordination between levels is assured. The usefulness of this goal program as a health planning tool is evidenced in the model's explicit articulation of EMS policy objectives and its ability to link system levels in terms of “goal-directed behavior”. The working of this multilevel covering model is demonstrated by reference to EMS planning scenarios and related numerical examples.

Rate agile rate-adaptive digital subscriber line

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for maintaining the maximum achievable data rate on a DSL line, up to and including a rate to which a user subscribes is described. Performance monitoring is conducted on the DSL line on an ongoing basis to determine noise margins in each direction. Each noise margin is compared against pre-determined decreasing/increasing thresholds to determine whether the line characteristics dictate a data rate change without loss of synchronization. The invention supports dynamic provisioning changes including application driven service level change requests, e.g., new bandwidth-on demand services. In some embodiments, a combination of existing and new embedded operations channel (EOC) messages are used to implement the modem data rate changes. New EOC messages may be implemented using some of the reserved and/or vendor proprietary Opcodes currently permitted. Modem assigned data rate changes are implemented without a disruption of service, e.g., without the need for re-initialization and/or re-synchronization.

Service Level in Multistage MRP and Base Stock Controlled Production Systems

Abstract: A manufacturing system consisting of a number of stages in series is considered. Each stage has limited capacity and the processing times at the stages are random so queueing of work in process can occur at any stage. External demands should be met from final product inventory, but because of queueing effects not all demands can be met immediately. The service level provided by the system will be influenced by the approach used to initiate work release to each stage (such as MRP or base stock coordination) and by management set parameters such as the stage lead times, safety stocks and echelon target stocks. Based on a sample path analysis an approach for finding performance bounds is developed. An approximation scheme is tested by comparison with simulation on a number of two stage systems. Finally, some interesting conclusions about the design of MRP and base stock systems are drawn.

Service Competition with General Queueing Facilities

Abstract: In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with the price they charge for their service. A firm's waiting-time standard may either be defined in terms of the expected value or a given, for example 95%, percentile of the steady state waiting-time distribution. We investigate how a service industry's competitive behavior depends on the characteristics of the service providers' queueing systems. We provide a unifying approach to investigate various standard single-stage systems covering the spectrum from M/M/1 to general G/GI/s systems, along with open Jackson networks to represent multistage service systems. Assuming that the capacity cost is proportional with the service rates, we refer to its dependence on (i) the firm's demand rate, and (ii) the waiting-time standard as the capacity cost function. We show that across the above broad spectrum of queueing models, the capacity cost function belongs to a specific four-parameter class of function, either exactly or as a close approximation. We then characterize how this capacity cost function impacts the equilibrium behavior in the industry. We give separate treatments to the case where the firms compete in terms of (i) prices (only), (ii) their service level or waiting-time standard (only), and (iii) simultaneously in terms of both prices and service levels. The firms' demand rates are given by a general system of equations of the prices and waiting-time standards in the industry.