New Frontiers In Workforce Management and Performance
Optimization
Turgut Aykin
ac2 Solutions
Talent Technology Center
12 Crown Plaza Suite 207
Hazlet, NJ 07730
taykin@ac2solutions.com
Over the past two decades, call centers (also called “Contact Centers” because of
multimedia services such as email, fax, or chat provided) showed a tremendous growth
and have become a major service channel between the public and private enterprises,
and their customers. Effective planning and execution of operations at these
organizations are critical management functions that affect customer satisfaction,
operating costs and profits, and employee retention. This presentation focuses on the
new approaches to the unique challenges faced in the design and operation of call
centers, and current research opportunities. Specifically, we will discuss the following:
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Forecasting contact volumes, service times, and shrinkage with multiple seasonal
patterns (intra-day, day of week, week of year),
Skills-based and non-skills based agent schedule optimization,
Maximizing “fairness” in employee schedule and vacation bidding
Employee schedule assignment to maximize satisfaction,
Real-time performance monitoring and optimization through re-forecasting and rescheduling,
Change management
Strategic planning
Although our focus in this talk is on call centers, the same issues and challenges also
exist in other service systems such as hospitals, police organizations, limousine
companies, etc. We will also discuss challenges faced in these systems together with
the design and management of virtual service systems where, for example, call center
agents, diagnostic radiologists, medical experts, etc., may not be working at the same
place but at geographically distributed locations (e.g. from their homes).
Turgut Aykin, Ph.D., President
Dr. Turgut Aykin is the president of ac2 Solutions. Applying the breakthroughs led by Dr. Aykin and his
peers in forecasting and optimization, ac2 Solutions is providing innovative and practical applications of
advanced statistical and optimization models for Contact Center Workforce Management, and Supply Chain
Management. He holds two U.S. patents and has published numerous scientific articles in refereed
professional journals on contact center scheduling, and supply chain optimization, and he has routinely been
invited to contribute at national conferences. He has served as an Area Editor and Member of the Editorial
Board for the International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management, a scientific peer-refereed
journal publishing the latest research results and technology development for the service sector, including
contact centers. Prior to founding ac2 Solutions, Dr. Aykin was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell
Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and IBM Global Services. He assisted many Fortune 500 companies
including Bank of America, Caterpillar, Celestica, Charter Communications, Convergys, Delta Air Lines, Dell
Computers, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Phillips, and Siemens (Munich, Germany) in improving their
processes and performance. He also served as an Associate Professor of Management Science at the
Graduate School of Management, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey from 1989 to 1997. Dr. Aykin
holds BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research