Chance-constrained scheduling with recourse for multi-skill call centers with arrival-rate and absenteeism uncertainty

Abstract

We consider a chance-constrained two-stage stochastic scheduling problem for multi-skill call centers with uncertainty on arrival rate and absenteeism. We first determine an initial schedule based on an imperfect forecast on arrival rate and absenteeism. Then, this schedule is corrected applying recourse actions when the forecast becomes more accurate in order to satisfy the service levels and average waiting times constraints with some predefined probabilities. We propose a method that combines simulation with integer programming and cut generation to solve the problem.