Service Management

QUESTION 1 For many services, demand cannot be smoothed very effectively. Consider, for example, demand at a call center as shown in Figure 1. These data are the half-hourly call rates during a typical 24- hour day. We see that the peak volume (2,500 calls) occurs at 10:30 AM and the minimum volume (20 calls) occurs at 5:30 AM. The peak-to-valley variation is 125 to 1. No inducements are likely to change this demand pattern substantially; therefore, control must come from adjusting service capacity to match demand. Several strategies can be used to achieve this goal. Figure 1: Daily Demand for telephone operators 2500 2000 1300 Calls 1000 500 8 10 12 AM 4 6 8 10 12 12 2 NOON Time PM a) Referring to the statement above, describe the analysis required for matching the service capacity and demand for work services in this 24-hour call center. (10 Marks) b) with your own words, write ONLY 250 words about service capacity. (10 Marks) [Total: 20 Marks]