AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

Service chain design in the user-choice environment

by Yue Zhang




Institution: McGill University
Department: Desautels Faculty of Management
Degree: PhD
Year: 2009
Keywords: Business Administration - Management
Record ID: 1841053
Full text PDF: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile32398.pdf


Abstract

The purpose of my thesis is to help decision makers increase client participation or profits by optimizing a service chain network and main client attraction determinants. Although this research can be applied to other service sectors, it mainly focuses on preventive healthcare as an application domain. Since people usually have more flexibility to choose whether or not to receive preventive healthcare services, maximizing the level of participation by providing a more balanced facility network subject to limited recourses is an important task for the government. Composed of three studies, this thesis provides a methodology for designing a network of preventive healthcare facilities with taking congestion into account to improve its accessibility to potential clients, so as to maximize participation. The number of facilities to be established as well as the location and the capacity of each facility are the main determinants of the configuration of a healthcare facility network. In contrast to the centralized environment considered in traditional facility location or supply chain design models, this research is distinguished by the emphasis on the user-choice environment, i.e., clients have the right to choose a desired facility. In the thesis, based on their attraction, clients are assumed to either only patronize an optimal facility or make a probabilistic choice among available alternatives. Integrating management science, healthcare, and marketing together, this multidisciplinary research uses a variety of techniques, including mathematical programming, heuristics, variational inequality, queuing theory, and discrete choice models. L'objectif de ma thèse est d'aider les preneurs de décision à augmenter la participation de leurs clients ou leurs profits en optimisant un réseau de service en chaine ainsi que les déterminants principaux attirant les clients. Bien que cette recherche puisse être mise en œuvre dans d'autres secteurs de service, elle se concentre principalement sur les soins de santé préventifs en tant que domaine d'application. Étant donné que les gens ont en général plus de flexibilité dans leur prise de décision concernant la réception de services de soins de santé, le gouvernement possède la tâche importante de maximiser le niveau de participation en fournissant un réseau d'installations plus équilibré, tout en ayant des ressources limitées. Composée de trois études, cette thèse fournie une méthodologie permettant la conception d'un réseau d'installations de soins de santé préventifs, en prenant en compte le phénomène de congestion afin…