| This thesis focuses on the analysis of stochastic models that frequently arise in the management of service and manufacturing operations. Determining the waiting time, the routing choice or proposing a dynamic pricing policy in stochastic systems are of great importance in practice but can be challenging. Waiting is an integral part of the service experience and customers joining a line to acquire a product can rarely estimate their waiting time so any relevant information is appreciated by them. But sometimes disclosing delay information to the customers may not benefit the provider. In other settings, a manager has to trade off speed and quality. Speeding up a service or manufacturing operation may reduce congestion or increase production but at the expense of quality and customer satisfaction. In my dissertation, I focus on modeling these phenomena and obtaining significant managerial insights on how firms can improve the service experience and maximize their revenue. My main findings should be of interest to managers; in laymen's terms, I show how to estimate wait times in a complex queueing system, how to choose the optimal price and speed to deliver a good product and I provide insights on when firms should reveal more information to customers. |
