Abstract
In this paper a binary integer linear programming model is proposed for scheduling tour of service personnel in aftersale service process. The model aims to minimize the service personnel’s overall travel time of visiting all customers with additional side conditions that customers should be served by first come first serve (FCFS) priority basis within specified service response time. These side conditions are important strategies in present era of time-based competition. The objective and side conditions are considered for both profitability and effectiveness. Indeed, for given service response time, optimal tour plan would minimize the quantity of service personnel. This decreases the hiring cost of service personnel and thus increases the profitability of after-sale service process. On the other hand, for given quantity of service personnel, optimal tour plan would reduce the service response time. Responsive after-sale service on FCFS priority basis will increase the customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to more repeat orders and hence improves the profitability. The proposed model can capture all realistic constraints of service management process, such as time windows, skill requirement, balanced workload distribution, etc. A numerical illustration is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in conducting economic analysis of an after-sale service process.
Highlights
After-sale service means those activities and interactions with the customers which follow a product’s sale
We propose a binary integer linear programming model for allocating service personnel in the after-sale service process problem by imposing service response time and first come first serve (FCFS) service policy as side conditions
Parameters and decision variables for binary integer linear programming model for allocation of service personnel in the after-sale service process
Summary
After-sale service means those activities and interactions with the customers which follow a product’s sale. In today’s time-based competitive era, after-sale service is considered as an important means for organizations to increase profitability and to differentiate themselves from their competitors. According to Dennis and Kambil [3], post-sale support services can be the source of significant revenue generation. It can account for as much as 25% of revenues and 40%– 50% of profits for organizations. To make customers satisfied and delighted as well as to increase profitability, the post-sale support services need to be performed efficiently and effectively. There exist a tradeoff between service response time and quantity of service personnel (i.e., cost of providing after-sale service). To achieve rapid service response time goal with minimum quantity of service personnel, a firm needs to schedule tour of service personnel in optimal manner
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