Control of arrivals in a finite buffered queue with setup costs

Abstract

We consider finite buffered queues where the arrival process is controlled by shutting down and restarting the arrival stream. In the absence of holding costs for items in the queue, the optimal (s, S) policy can be characterised by relating the arrival control problem to a corresponding service control problem. With the inclusion of holding costs however, this characterisation is not valid and efficient numerical computation of the queue length probability distribution is necessary. We perform this computation by using a duality property which relates queue lengths in the controlled arrival system to a controlled service system. Numerical results which analyse the effect of setup and holding costs and the variability of the arrival process on the performance of the system are included.