[mikael]

I'm afraid that you've lost me a bit.

Let's say that both centers have an AHT of X minutes per call.

Both have a Service Level target of 80% of all incoming calls picked up in 30 seconds or less.

The LargeCenter has a staff of 100 scheduled to be on deck and available, and the SmallCenter only has 30.

Between 0900 and 1000 on Monday morning, each center will receive a total number of incoming calls that matches their forecasted load (i.e. that will enable them to meet their target service level).

If the staffing calculations were done effectively, perhaps even using the same tool for both schedules and both set to hit the target SL *exactly*, why would there necessarily be any difference in the ASA between the centers?

Minor variances could occur in the call patterns, of course, but either center could be favored by such from moment to moment.

In my experience, OR calculations tend to impress the OR folks -- who unfortunately are usually not the ones that authorize the budgets. I have enough trouble when I have to explain the basic concepts of call center managment or what an Erlang calculator is to center managers and to their company's Senior Mgmt teams. If I hit them with the full suite of OR tools, their eyes would glaze over in about two nanoseconds.