A Simulation Study of the Utilization of a Flexible Appointment Scheduling System

Abstract

Many services offer reservations for appointments. Often, the available appointment slots are preset, of equal length, and sequentially arranged throughout the workday. Customers choose among those slots for the most convenient time slot. Instead, if they can be offered a slot precisely to their convenience (if available), it may lead to gaps in the workday that cannot be filled, thus reducing the utilization of the service provider. Here, we estimate the amount of under-utilization introduced in such a flexible appointment system using simulation, assuming uniformly distributed demands. This is useful in balancing the service provider's utilization and the customer's waiting time.