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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bharti, Bharti, Bekker, René, Levering, Nikki, Mandjes, Michel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.19601
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Table of Contents:
  • This paper develops a structured framework for the design and dynamic updating of service time windows in delivery and appointment-based systems. We consider a single-server setting with stochastic service and travel times, where customers are promised a time window in which the provider will arrive. The first part of the paper introduces a static window construction method based on a probabilistic threshold criterion, using an analytical approximation of residual travel and service time distributions. Building on this, we develop a dynamic update mechanism that monitors residual system uncertainty, where time windows are revised during execution only when the remaining time until the window's start falls below a predefined threshold. This threshold-based approach enables communication-efficient scheduling while substantially improving delivery accuracy. Numerical experiments demonstrate significant performance gains of the dynamic approach in both stylized and real-world settings.