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Field service managers are often faced with the problem of balancing the number of technicians, territory size, and field service quality. This paper presents an approximate state-dependent queuing model that can help field service managers make these tradeoffs. Simulation experiments over a variety of field service environments demonstrate that this model is quite accurate for predicting mean travel time and mean response time. The approximate queuing model has been imbedded in a decision support system and implemented by a Fortune 100 company. Management found the decision support system very useful in making important field service decisions.
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Hill et al. (1992) studied this question.
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