Scheduling and Sequencing Arrivals to an Appointment System

The authors develop methods for optimally scheduling and sequencing customer arrivals to a single-server appointment system. Customers are characterized by probabilistic service times with distinct distributions, and the server works according to a first-come, first-served discipline. A customer may fail to show for an appointment with known probability, but all arriving customers are assumed to be punctual. Costs are incurred at a specified rate per unit time that each customer waits for service, and an additional cost is incurred for every unit of time that the server operates beyond a scheduled closing time. The objective is to minimize the combined costs of customer waiting and server overtime. Possible applications include scheduling surgeons to operating suites, scheduling military aircraft to training ranges, and scheduling service activities for telecommunication technicians.

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