| Article ID: | iaor20112175 |
| Volume: | 13 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page Number: | 53 |
| End Page Number: | 57 |
| Publication Date: | Dec 2011 |
| Journal: | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management |
| Authors: | Robinson Lawrence W, Chen Rachel R |
| Keywords: | scheduling |
Almost all research in appointment scheduling has focused on the trade‐off between customer waiting times and server idle times. In this paper, we present an observation‐based method for estimating the relative cost of the customer waiting time, which is a critical parameter for finding the optimal appointment schedule.