Migros: Flexibility Design and Optimization in Service Systems (Co-Principal Investigators: O. Z. Akşin, F. Karaesmen, E. L. Örmeci)

Migros: Cross-Selling in Call Centers: Accounting for Customer Reactions (Co-Principal Investigators: O. Z. Akşin, E. D. Güneş, E. L. Örmeci)

Bouygues Telecom: Design and Analysis of Call Centers (Co-Principal Investigators: Y. Dallery, F. Karaesmen, O. Z. Akşin)

Analysis of the operational impact of cross-selling in some major US retail banks (O. Z. Akşin and P. T. Harker)

Patent applications

Salah Aguir, Fabrice Chauvet, Yves Dallery , Fikri KARAESMEN, Rabie NAIT-ABDALLAH, Thierry PRAT, "Solution pour l'estimation du temps d'attente moyen dans un centre d'appels", Brevet français/French Patent, Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI), February 4th, 2003, FR N°03/01270, Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OMPI) / World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), N°PCT/FR2004/050043, pp. 14.

Salah Aguir, Fabrice Chauvet, Yves Dallery, Fikri KARAESMEN, Rabie NAIT-ABDALLAH, Thierry PRAT, "Solution pour l'estimation avec intervalle de confiance du temps d'attente en vue de l'annoncer au client", Brevet français/French Patent, Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI), December 4th, 2003, FR N°03/50965, pp. 17.

Awards:  

The project “Estimating Waiting Times in a Multi-Class Call Center” won the 2003 Innovation Prize of Bouygues Company.  

Senior Design Projects

Multi-Pattern Call Forecasting (supervised L. Örmeci in Spring 2005): In a large call center, there are typically multiple classes of calls requesting different types of services (e.g. credit card related, bank operations, insurance operations). Successful workforce planning requires detailed forecasts of call volumes of each class. The goal of this project is to develop an approach for forecasting calls of each class taking into account daily, weekly, monthly and yearly fluctuations. The resulting forecasts are expected to explain past patterns and fluctuations and therefore enable better planning for the future.

Simulation and Performance Evaluation of a Call Center (supervised by F. Karaesmen in Fall 2003): The goal of this project is to develop a simulation based model that enables the performance evaluation of a large multi-class call center. The simulation model is expected to be modular and flexible in order to allow comparing and benchmarking different configurations and operating policies. The inputs (arrival patterns, call durations etc.) to be used in the model will be extracted from existing data.

Shift Scheduling with Logistics Constraints (co-supervised by S. Savaş and L. Örmeci in Fall 2003): Due to fluctuations in the call volumes during the day, the required number of service representatives in a call center varies significantly throughout the day. The goal of this project is to schedule the workforce given the capacity (in terms of the total number of service representatives) requirements. The scheduling approach developed must take into account a number of workforce constraints such as different starting and ending times, break periods etc. In addition, the approach must also consider logistics related costs and constraints such as the transportation costs, shuttle times and routes etc.

Teaching Cases

Akşin, O. Z., NationsBank Reinvents the Phone Channel: The Design Decision (A), INSEAD Case 1998 (with P. T. Harker).