A Lower Bounding Result for theOptimal

We derive a lower bound for the staang levels required to meet a projected load in a retail service facility. We model the queueing system as a Markovian process with non-homogeneous Poisson arrivals. Motivated by an application from the postal services, we assume that the arrival rate is piecewise constant over the time horizon and retain such transient eeects as build-up in the system. The optimal staang decision is formulated as a multiperiod dynamic programming problem where staa is allocated to each time period to minimize the total costs over the horizon. The main result is the derivation of a lower bound on the staang requirements that is computed by decoupling successive time periods.