Average Service Cost Research Articles

Monte Carlo‐based service migration under multiple constraints in mobile edge computing

AbstractMobile edge computing as an emerging technique can provide services for mobile terminals, and meanwhile the mobility of users brings new challenges. When a user moves across different areas, the system needs to determine whether to migrate service so as to guarantee quality of experience for the user. However, it is difficult to obtain the optimal migration policy in real time due to the huge state space. Considering delay‐sensitive data‐intensive applications run by mobile terminals with limited battery power, an efficient service migration policy should be able to make a good tradeoff among service cost, service delay and terminal energy consumption. Here, an online Monte Carlo‐based service migration (MCSM) policy is proposed to minimize service cost under constraints of deadline and terminal energy consumption. A penalty mechanism is designed to update reward when partial or all constraints are not meet. State‐action value estimation and policy improvement are triggered only on the completion of each episode. Each episode is traversed reversely to calculate the average cumulative reward so as to improve policy. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can improve service success ratio and reduce average service cost compared to the existing service migration policies.

An online bi-objective scheduling algorithm for service provisioning in cloud computing

To reduce costs and risks, service providers can purchase Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) instances from public clouds to deploy service applications and deliver job-execution services to users. However, it is challenging to make optimal instance purchasing and job scheduling decisions due to diverse instance billing methods and random service demands. In order to minimize time average service costs while ensuring quality of service (QoS), we consider that service providers purchase combinations of reserved and on-demand instances to meet the workload of their service system. Service providers need to dynamically determine the amount of on-demand and reserved instances to purchase for job executions, and then schedule jobs to run at the appropriate time. In this paper, we first propose a method to dynamically purchase reserved instances based on the historical usage data of on-demand and reserved instances. Then, we use a variable-length cycle scheduling mode for the job processing system and propose an online bi-objective scheduling algorithm based on Lyapunov optimization to schedule jobs. Even without the knowledge about the future, our online algorithm can dynamically purchase on-demand instances in an optimal way under the current number of reserved instances, and schedule jobs in varying time periods according to the arrival of jobs and optimization objectives. Based on both synthetic and real-world data, extensive experimental results show that our algorithm can achieve bi-objective optimization of minimizing time average cost while ensuring QoS.

Service Cost Effective and Reliability Aware Job Scheduling Algorithm on Cloud Computing Systems

Nowadays, the cloud computing services encounter several cloud Quality of Service challenges, such as reliability, cost, and response time. The most common mechanism to improve cloud service reliability is fault-tolerant technique. However, this reliability enhancement technique inevitably results in multiple replications, which lead to high service cost. In recognition of these challenges, we build a cloud computing systems resources management architecture. Then, we analyze the cloud service execution reliability on the physical resources of a VM and used a CUDA-enabled parallel two-dimensional LSTM to predict the software faults of a cloud VM. Thirdly, we propose an effective primary/backup cloud service cost calculation approach. To overcome the cloud service response time constraint, we integrate a response time slack factor into this method. Fourthly, we formulate the cloud service reliability and cost aware job scheduling problem, which aims at minimizing the total cloud service cost and rejection rate, and improving the system reliability. Fifthly, a heuristic greedy reliability and cost aware job scheduling (RCJS) algorithm is proposed. Finally, a performance evaluation is conducted and the experimental results demonstrate that our proposed RCJS algorithm significantly outperforms optimal redundant VM placement (OPVMP), MIN-MIN algorithms in terms of average service cost and rejection rate.

Beyond revenue diversification: Service diversification and service costs in nonprofit acute care hospitals

AbstractMany nonprofits are multi‐service organizations that provide a range of services. However, how nonprofits manage their service portfolios has not received much scholarly attention in nonprofit management research. In this research note, informed by studies on product diversification in strategic management research in the business management literature, we explore the effect of a nonprofit's service diversification on its service costs, using nonprofit hospitals as an empirical context. Through a longitudinal study of U.S. nonprofit acute care hospitals, we find that a nonprofit hospital's level of service diversification is associated with a decrease in its average service costs. Further, both related diversification and unrelated diversification are associated with a decrease in average service costs, but the association of related diversification is greater. This research note informs an understudied line of inquiry in nonprofit management research and calls for more research attention to nonprofits' service portfolios.

AGRICULTURE LAND AFFORESTATION WITH FAST-GROWING WOODY CROPS: ECONOMIC EVALUATION ACCORDING TO YIELDS OF PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTAL TRIALS

European Union (EU) aims to increase the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption in the next decades. The main renewable resource, which is mentioned in the policy documents, is biomass, especially wood biomass. Wood biomass for energy purposes could be successfully acquired from fast-growing woody plantations, growing on non-used agricultural lands. In Latvia, in 2019 were around 250 000 ha non-used agriculture land and part of it could be used for plantation growing. In Latvia, suitable woody species for use in plantations are willow, hybrid aspen, and grey alder. For economic calculations plantation site preparation before planting, planting, management, and biomass harvest costs were calculated, as well as revenues from selling biomass. In total 7 different plantation models were evaluated. Comparing the economic indicators for fast-growing woody crop plantation models during their cultivation and applying a discount rate of 7.63%, average service costs and product selling prices for the period 2015-2019, and under the existing plantation support system in 2021, intensively managed willow plantations, extensively managed willow plantations and hybrid aspen agroforestry plantations show positive accumulated cash flow. Hybrid aspen woody plantations and plantation forest, and grey alder energy wood and woody plantations show a negative accumulated cash flow, and their establishment in 2021 does not pay off. Factors that mostly affect plantation cash flow and therefore economic return are the biomass selling price and harvested biomass volume.

The Uptake of E-Commerce Services In Johannesburg

The aim of study was to assess the pace of adoption and quality of E-Commerce services that are provided to customers in Johannesburg, South Africa. Data was collected from 180 E-Commerce enterprises operating in Fourways, Eastgate and Rosebank. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance model (MANOVA) with maximum likelihood estimation was used for comparing the three business districts of Johannesburg with regards to the average cost of services and the average length of time required for providing services to customers. The adequacy of E-Commerce services provided to customers was assessed based on criteria defined by Bonson et al. [1]. The study showed that there was no significant difference among the three business districts of Johannesburg with regards to both variables of comparison (cost and time). The results showed that the pace of adoption of E-Commerce services in the three business districts was significantly influenced by a combination of technological and organisational factors. The study has shown that E-Commerce enterprises in Johannesburg need assistance from the City of Johannesburg in areas related to infrastructure, economic incentives, skills-based training, and monitoring and evaluation.

Home and Community-Based Service Use by Vulnerable Older Adults.

The purpose of this study was to identify different types of clients who use home and community-based services. Enrollment characteristics of 76 clients at risk of nursing home placement and Medicaid spend-down who were enrolled in the Virginia Community Living Program were analyzed. Two-step cluster analysis identified 4 groups of service users. Enabling resources (caregiver relationship to participant, participant living arrangement, and length of time caregiver provided assistance to participant) and disability type (physical, cognitive, traumatic brain injury, or other) differentiated the client groups. Groups differed on average service cost per day and likelihood of nursing home placement if services were not provided. Findings point to the value of having practitioners assist vulnerable clients in tailoring services to meet different care needs and the need for refining policies guiding home and community-based care.

AN INTERVENTION TRIAL FOR PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY ATTENDING A&E

Background Some people with epilepsy (PWE) make frequent emergency department (ED) visits, with up 50% being admitted. No UK studies have examined interventions for them. We aimed to test whether an epilepsy nurse specialist (ENS) might reduce ED attendance. Methods 85 adults with epilepsy were recruited, 41 receiving treatment-as-usual (TAU), and 44 PWE offered 2 one-to-one sessions with an ENS. Participants completed questionnaires at baseline, 6- and 12-months9 follow-up. Results Sixty-nine (81%) participants completed follow-up. Over 40% were of non-white ethnicity, which predicted significantly higher service use and total costs. The intervention group had no significant relative reduction in ED visits at 12 months. Factors most predictive of subsequent ED visits were patients9 baseline feelings of stigmatization due to epilepsy, and low confidence in managing epilepsy. Intervention participants spent less time as inpatients, so their average service cost was lower (adjusted difference £558, 95% CI, -£2409, £648). Conclusions The intervention did not lead to a reduction in ED use, but did not cost more, partly because those receiving the intervention had shorter hospital admissions. Future interventions might focus more on patients9 perceptions of stigma, and on their confidence in managing epilepsy. ED visits might, thereby, be reduced and efficiency-savings generated.

Clinical- and cost-effectiveness of a nurse led self-management intervention to reduce emergency visits by people with epilepsy.

People with chronic epilepsy (PWE) often make costly, and clinically unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits. Some do it frequently. No studies have examined interventions to reduce them. An intervention delivered by an epilepsy nurse specialist (ENS) might reduce visits. The rationale is it may optimize patients' self-management skills and knowledge of appropriate ED use. We examined such an intervention's clinical- and cost-effectiveness. Eighty-five adults with epilepsy were recruited from three London EDs with similar catchment populations. Forty-one PWE recruited from two EDs received treatment-as-usual (TAU) and formed the comparison group. The remaining 44 PWE were recruited from the ED of a hospital that had implemented a new ENS service for PWE attending ED. These participants formed the intervention group. They were offered 2 one-to-one sessions with an ENS, plus TAU. Participants completed questionnaires on health service use and psychosocial well-being at baseline, 6- and 12-month follow-up. Covariates were identified and adjustments made. Sixty-nine (81%) participants were retained at follow-up. No significant effect of the intervention on ED visits at 12 months or on other outcomes was found. However, due to less time as inpatients, the average service cost for intervention participants over follow-up was less than for TAU participants' (adjusted difference £558, 95% CI, −£2409, £648). Covariates most predictive of subsequent ED visits were patients' baseline feelings of stigmatization due to epilepsy and low confidence in managing epilepsy. The intervention did not lead to a reduction in ED use, but did not cost more, partly because those receiving the intervention had shorter hospital admissions. Our findings on long-term ED predictors clarifies what causes ED use, and suggests that future interventions might focus more on patients' perceptions of stigma and on their confidence in managing epilepsy. If addressed, ED visits might be reduced and efficiency-savings generated.

Economies of Scale in Local Communal Services in Hungary

Knowledge of whether, and over what range of output, there are economies or diseconomies of scale in providing local communal services is an important question from a theoretical, practical and regional political point of view. The theoretical side of the question is connected to the primary research regarding the optimal city size. If an optimal city size can actually be established, then a valid policy argument can be made for fostering its approximation. However, theoretical considerations are sometimes based on those types of assumptions, which are often not valid in reality. Therefore, empirical investigations are essential in this research area. After a short theoretical overview, the paper initially gives a general outline of previous controversial empirical evidence on economies of scale regarding community size and the provision of local communal services. In the second part, the empirical findings are presented; these concern economies of scale in local communal services based on a large and detailed database, which consist of almost 300 Hungarian settlements. During the research, a number of methodological questions have occurred. For example, there are several solutions for the organisational structure providing local services, from a large holding to the smaller individual companies. Considering this and some other issues, the main results suggest that on a community level, there are moderate economies of scale in water supply, sewage disposal and district heating and a moderate diseconomy of scale in refuse collection until 5 thousand inhabitants. Above this level there is no connection between the settlement size and the average cost of services. The results are mainly consistent with the previous findings: there are economies of scale under a certain threshold, but after this, unit cost reduction is not feasible. This threshold can be different in the different types of services

Costo institucional del paciente con incapacidad temporal para el trabajo por lumbalgia mecánica

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><strong>In­tro­duc­ción: </strong><span>la lumbalgia afecta de manera frecuente a la población económicamente activa. Es la primera causa de pérdida de días laborales en trabajadores menores de 55 años de edad y la segunda de ausentismo laboral. </span></p><p><strong>Objetivo: </strong><span>Determinar el costo institucional del paciente con incapacidad temporal para el trabajo por lumbalgia mecánica.</span></p><p><span><br /> </span><strong>Materiales­ y­ métodos: </strong><span>Se realizó un estudio de costos de expedientes de trabajadores con lumbalgia de 20 a 60 años con incapacidad temporal para el trabajo. El tamaño de la muestra (228 pacientes) se calculó con la fórmula de promedios para población infinita con nivel de confianza del 95%. La técnica muestral fue por cuota empleando como marco muestral el listado de pacientes con incapacidad temporal para el trabajo y diagnóstico de lumbalgia mecánica. las variables estudiadas fueron las características sociodemográficas, el perfil de uso, costo unitario y costo promedio de los servicios otorgados. El análisis estadístico incluyó porcentajes, promedios, intervalo de confianza y proyección.</span></p><p><span><br /> </span><strong>Resultados: </strong><span>El costo total promedio por paciente con lumbalgia mecánica es de 1744,08 uSD, la incapacidad es el costo más elevado (1083,71 uSD), seguido de los estudios de gabinete (394,89 uSD), las consultas (180,52 uSD), los medicamentos y el laboratorio.<br /> </span><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusión: </strong><span>El costo institucional del paciente con incapacidad temporal para el trabajo con lumbalgia mecánica </span>resulta en miles de dólares y, proyectado a una población de pacientes, el costo se incrementa a millones.</p><p> </p><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p> </p></div></div></div></div></div></div>

Can an epilepsy nurse specialist-led self-management intervention reduce attendance at emergency departments and promote well-being for people with severe epilepsy? A non-randomised trial with a nested qualitative phase

ObjectivesTo (1) describe the characteristics and service use of people with established epilepsy (PWE) who attend the emergency department (ED); (2) evaluate the economic impact of PWE who attend the ED; (3) determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an epilepsy nurse specialist (ENS)-led self-management intervention plus treatment as usual (TAU) compared with TAU alone in reducing ED use and promoting well-being; (4) describe patients' views of the intervention; and (5) explore their reasons for attending the ED.DesignNon-randomised trial with nested qualitative study.SettingThe EDs of three inner London hospitals. The EDs each offer similar services and support a similar local population, which made a comparison of patient outcomes reasonable.ParticipantsAdults diagnosed with epilepsy for ≥ 1 year were prospectively identified from the EDs by presenting symptom/discharge diagnosis. We recruited 85 of 315 patients with 44 forming the intervention group and 41 the comparison group.InterventionIntervention participants were offered two one-to-one outpatient sessions delivered by an ENS who aimed to optimise self-management skills and knowledge of appropriate emergency service use. The first session lasted for 45–60 minutes and the second for 30 minutes.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was the number of ED visits that participants reported making over the 6 months preceding the 12-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were visits reported at the 6-month follow-up and scores on psychosocial measures.ResultsIn the year preceding recruitment, the 85 participants together made 270 ED visits. The frequency of their visits was positively skewed, with 61% having attended multiple times. The mean number of visits per participant was 3.1 [standard deviation (SD) 3.6] and the median was two (interquartile range 1–4). Mean patient service cost was £2355 (SD £2455). Compared with findings in the general epilepsy population, participants experienced more seizures and had greater anxiety, lower epilepsy knowledge and greater perceived stigma. Their outpatient care was, however, consistent with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommendations. In total, 81% of participants were retained at the 6- and 12-month follow-ups, and 80% of participants offered the intervention attended. Using intention-to-treat analyses, including those adjusted for baseline differences, we found no significant effect of the intervention on ED use at the 6-month follow-up [adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93 to 3.28] or the 12-month follow-up (adjusted IRR 1.92, 95% CI 0.68 to 5.41), nor on any psychosocial outcomes. Because they spent less time as inpatients, however, the average service cost of intervention participants over follow-up was less than that of TAU participants (adjusted difference £558, 95% CI –£2409 to £648). Lower confidence in managing epilepsy and more felt stigma at baseline best predicted more ED visits over follow-up. Interviews revealed that patients generally attended because they had no family, friend or colleague nearby who had the confidence to manage a seizure. Most participants receiving the intervention valued it, including being given information on epilepsy and an opportunity to talk about their feelings. Those reporting most ED use at baseline perceived the most benefit.ConclusionsAt baseline, > 60% of participants who had attended an ED in the previous year had reattended in the same year. In total, 50% of their health service costs were accounted for by ED use and admissions. Low confidence in their ability to manage their epilepsy and a greater sense of stigma predicted frequent attendance. The intervention did not lead to a reduction in ED use but did not cost more, partly because those receiving the intervention had shorter average hospital stays. The most common reason reported by PWE for attending an ED was the lack of someone nearby with sufficient experience of managing a seizure. Those who attended an ED frequently and received the intervention were more likely to report that the intervention helped them. Our findings on predictors of ED use clarify what causes ED use and suggest that future interventions might focus more on patients' perceptions of stigma and on their confidence in managing epilepsy. If addressed, ED visits might be reduced and efficiency savings generated.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN06469947.FundingThis project was funded by the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme and will be published in full inHealth Services and Delivery Research; Vol. 1, No. 9. See the HSDR programme website for further project information.

Collaborative intelligence in knowledge based service planning

E-services are provided by several web-enabled companies. While some of them are competitive in nature, others are collaborative. There are few methodologies currently existing for measuring the value of e-collaboration among these e-service providers. The objective of this research is to measure collaborative intelligence (CI) in the knowledge based service (KBS) industry and to identify measures for finding the best collaborators during the formation and functioning stages of collaborative networks. The model developed in this research, CIMK (collaborative intelligence measure of KBS), measures CI by multi-objective optimization on parameters for collaboration, and suggests optimal operating points for various clients with greater flexibility. CIMK allows decision makers to customize the model based on their knowledge of the industry. Then, the CNOA (Collaborative Network Optimization Algorithm) is applied to select the best providers for requests based on their CI levels. CNOA has been implemented over a HUB-CI (HUB with CI) platform, which is a next generation collaboration support system developed at Purdue University. Three analytic experiments are designed and performed to validate the models (1) in terms of usability, (2) to compare the CIMK with alternative methods, and (3) to find the relative advantages of the CIMK model. The results of the experiments indicate that the average service cost can decrease by close to 50% when operating points with high CI, suggested by CIMK model, are implemented. The CI level computed by CIMK is successfully used as a decision parameter for on-going matching e-service providers to different requests.

Service use and costs for people with headache: a UK primary care study

This paper aims to estimate the service and social costs of headache presenting in primary care and to identify predictors of headache costs. Patients were recruited from GP practices in England and service use and lost employment recorded. Predictors of cost were identified using regression models. Service and social costs were available on 288 and 282 patients, respectively. Average service costs over 3 months were £117 whilst total costs (including lost production) were £582. Patients referred to neurologists had service costs that were £82 higher than those not referred (90% CI £36–£128). Costs including lost employment were higher by £150, but this was not significant (90% CI -£139–£439). The annual mean service and social costs, weighted to represent population rates of referral, were £468 and £2328, respectively. Higher costs were significantly related to pain. Age was linked to higher service costs and lower social costs. The figures extrapolated to the whole of the UK suggest £956 million due to service use and £4.8 billion including lost employment. These are likely to be underestimates because many people experiencing headaches do not consult their GP.

Taxi and Limousine Services after the Bersani Reform: An Investigation on Main Italian Cities

Using data from a Bank of Italy survey, this paper analyzes the Italian taxi market and its recent changes. Local regulations are rather homogeneous, while there is a widespread disproportion, within municipal advisory committees, between the number of representatives of taxi drivers and that of consumers' advocates. Indicators of service adequacy are seldom used. The average service costs are rather homogeneous across Italian provinces, while there is great variance of supply and fare structures. The instruments made available to municipalities by the Bersani Law 2006 have been used mainly in large cities. In many cases, the expansion of service, achieved mainly through additional shifts rather than through the issue of (free) additional licenses, has been the result of a trade-off for fare increases (in part to protect drivers' income). Virtually no use has been made of municipal traffic rules. All in all it is difficult to evaluate the suitability of the decisions of municipalities with respect to market characteristics, given the lack of non-occasional information on market structure.

A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Seminatural Wetlands and Activated Sludge Wastewater-Treatment Systems

A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed to evaluate the competitiveness of seminatural Free Water Surface (FWS) wetlands compared to traditional wastewater-treatment plants. Six scenarios of the service costs of three FWS wetlands and three different wastewater-treatment plants based on active sludge processes were compared. The six scenarios were all equally effective in their wastewater-treatment capacity. The service costs were estimated using real accounting data from an experimental wetland and by means of a market survey. Some assumptions had to be made to perform the analysis. A reference wastewater situation was established to solve the problem of the different levels of dilution that characterize the inflow water of the different systems; the land purchase cost was excluded from the analysis, considering the use of public land as shared social services, and an equal life span for both seminatural and traditional wastewater-treatment plants was set. The results suggest that seminatural systems are competitive with traditional biotechnological systems, with an average service cost improvement of 2.1-fold to 8-fold, according to the specific solution and discount rate. The main improvement factor was the lower maintenance cost of the seminatural systems, due to the self-regulating, low artificial energy inputs and the absence of waste to be disposed. In this work, only the waste-treatment capacity of wetlands was considered as a parameter for the economic competitiveness analysis. Other goods/services and environmental benefits provided by FWS wetlands were not considered.

A window-assisted video partitioning strategy for partitioning and caching video streams in distributed multimedia systems

In this paper, we address the issue of efficiently streaming a set of heterogenous videos under the constraint of service latency over a scalable multimedia systems. We propose a novel strategy, referred to as window-assisted video partitioning (WAVP), for rendering cost-effective multimedia services. The objective is to minimize the service cost and maximize the number of requests that can be successfully served under resources constraints (cache capacity and link bandwidth). We formulate the problem of video partitioning as an optimization of both bandwidth resources and cache space, and derive the optimal schedule window for different video portions under consideration of time constraints, the popularities and the sizes of the video portions. In WAVP, video are partitioned into multiple portions and delivered according to by adaptive schedule windows. We prove that WAVP strategy not only optimize the service cost but also be able to serve requests under the time constraints without causing too much delay. We conduct mathematical analysis and derive certain performance bounds that quantify the overall performance of the strategy. It shows that the service cost can be optimized by adjusting the schedule window and resources utilization can be improved as video streams are partitioned into multiple portions. We evaluate the performance under several influencing parameters such as available bandwidth, cache capacity, and partition gradients. Simulation results show that our proposed method can not only significantly reduce the service cost under tight time constraints and with low partition overhead, but also balance the utilization of network resources to achieve high acceptance ratio with low average service cost.

Disputes over coverage of emergency department services: A study of two health maintenance organizations

Study objective We describe the characteristics and outcomes of enrollee–health plan disputes over insurance coverage for emergency department (ED) services at 2 large health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that apply the prudent layperson standard. Methods We abstracted information from a stratified random sample of approximately 3,500 appeals of coverage denials lodged by privately insured enrollees between 1998 and 2000 at 2 of the nation's largest HMOs (hereafter referred to as Plan 1 and Plan 2). We describe appeals involving ED services in terms of the timing of visits, patient age, costs of services, primary reason the patient sought care, and appeal outcome. Results Disputes over ED services accounted for approximately one half (52%) of postservice appeals at Plan 1 and one third (34%) at Plan 2. Nearly one half (46%) of ED appeals involved weekend, nighttime, or holiday visits to the ED; 22% were children's visits. The average cost of services in dispute was US$1,107. The most common general reasons for the ED visits in dispute were symptoms of illness (64%), injuries (22%), and services related to disease (8%). The most common presenting symptoms were abdominal pain, cramps, or spasms (7.6%); earaches or ear infections (3.4%); and lacerations/cuts (2.9%). Enrollees won more than 90% of appeals. Conclusion The prevalence of ED cases among all appeals reflects disagreement between lay and expert judgments about what constitutes emergency care under the prudent layperson standard. The high rate at which enrollees win these appeals highlights significant disagreement in interpretation of the standard among different adjudicators within managed care organizations (medical groups and health plans). When enrollees fail to challenge denials that would be reversed on appeal, they bear the financial brunt of ambiguities in interpretation of the prudent layperson standard.

Workforce cross-training decisions in field service systems with two job types

When job types are heterogeneous in a multi-server service system, pooling servers to reduce system delay requires cross-training. Managers should balance a reduction in customer waiting time with high service costs and possibly reduced server efficiency due to cross-training. In a field service system with two job types and a fixed number of servers, the determination of the mix of dedicated and cross-trained servers is a critical managerial decision. We were motivated by a real field service situation to study a model where the objective is to minimize the sum of the average service costs and the customer delay costs per unit time. We use simulation to investigate the impact of various system parameters such as the number of servers, server utilization, and server efficiency on the optimal workforce mix.

Welfare consequences of water supply alternatives in rural Tunisia

Many economic studies have addressed the issue of inefficiency of public water supply in rural areas and the potential for improved service by private companies. Many of these analyses focused on identifying either willingness to pay or comparing average service costs and prices paid by customers. This paper performs a welfare analysis of two water supply systems—public and self owned—in rural Tunisia. The paper calculates consumer and producer surplus and compares the performance of the two systems from a social point of view. Results suggest that both systems are inefficient, mainly because of a production level that is low compared with production capacity.