Two Multiplex Cinemas

Answer

  1. What are the main differences between the two cinemas from the perspective of the operations managers?

The main differences are:

  • Size of the cinemas
  • Number of ticket desks
  • Time for issuing a ticket
  • Scheduling of films
  • Layout.

Taking each of these in turn:

Size of the cinemas

The first cinema described (in Brussels) is significantly larger than the second. The implications for the operations manager will be:

  • More investment, equipment, maintenance, etc.
  • More staff per day to manage, so more need for supervisors, etc.
  • More customers, so potentially more problems per day
  • More planning complexity, and hence more need for scheduling system to cope with complexity.

Number of ticket desks

The cinema in Brussels requires 18 ticket desks for a capacity of 8,000 seats, (one per 444 seats) whereas the Birmingham cinema has 4 for a capacity of 1,840 seats (one per 460). These are surprisingly similar, particularly considering the radically different ways of scheduling the film start and finish times. There are some economies of scale in the front office ticketing at Brussels, but potentially the Birmingham approach to film scheduling should have resulted in a smaller number of ticket desks, and higher productivity.

However, reducing the number of ticket desks from 4 to 3 is a 25 per cent reduction, which would reduce capacity to match. In Brussels reduction of one ticket desk is only about 5 per cent of capacity. You could therefore discuss that the scale of the cinema allows more precise capacity management than smaller operations, the extreme being a single screen cinema that may only have one ticket desk which has to cope with all the fluctuations in demand on its own – therefore potentially being under-utilised at quiet times and subject to queuing at busy times.

Time for issuing a ticket

At Brussels the ticketing process takes 24.5 seconds per transaction giving a maximum ticketing capacity of 2,700 transactions (4,500 customers) per hour. At the Birmingham cinema the transaction rate is 20 seconds, giving it a maximum ticketing capacity of 720 transactions (1,300 customers) per hour. Again, the results are incredibly similar. The capacity issues here relate to the number of customers per transaction (which is slightly higher in the Birmingham example), and the average duration of the films. Students should be encouraged to do analysis of local cinemas to see if similar timings are seen there.

Scheduling of films

This is clearly where the greatest differences exist between the two cinemas: in Brussels the approach has been to have standard start times for all the films, whereas in Birmingham the start times are deliberately staggered which makes it slightly more complicated for customers to pre-plan their evening outings. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are addressed in Question 2.

Layout

The Birmingham cinema has only one entrance, which is also used as an exit. This concentrates front office staff in one place, which is good for security and control, but potentially bad for customer flow. The Brussels cinema has two entrances and operates at several levels. It has the big advantage of having dedicated exits, avoiding so much interference between arriving and departing customers.

  1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two different methods of scheduling the films on to the screens? How does each approach affect different types of customers?

The approach of the Brussels cinema potentially means that up to a maximum of 8,000 customers will arrive and buy tickets in the half-hour before a performance. This will not only put strain on the ticketing area, but also on the profitable sales of popcorn, sweets, and beverages. Also, between performances the cleaning staff will have to tidy up all the different screens, implying a need for larger numbers of cleaners. The staff can be used to clean the reception areas during the screening of films, relatively unimpeded by customers.

The approach at Birmingham is quite different: the start times are staggered specifically to create a relatively even flow of customers through the reception areas and the vending areas. The sequence of the films is designed so that if seats are not available for the most popular films, customers can still go into alternatives, a little later. There are huge advantages to this scheduling approach, particularly when you consider the demand patterns imposed on support operations such as the projectionist, cleaners, etc. Because of this it should be possible to get higher utilisation of staff, with less idle time between tasks. However, there is little evidence from the ticketing data to indicate that this has been achieved.

Much more data would be required to ascertain whether productivity was significantly different between the two cinemas.

  1. Group exercise

a)Find out the running times and classification of eight popular films. Try to schedule these on to the UCI Solihull screens, taking account of what popularity you might expect at different times. You should allow at least 20 minutes for emptying and cleaning, 10 minutes for admitting the next audience, and 15 minutes for advertising, before the start of the film.

b)Try to make an appointment to visit your local cinema to meet the manager. Compare the operations with those at Kinepolis and UCI, particularly in terms of scheduling.

This exercise will quickly show the students how difficult it is in practice to schedule, and the different objectives one might have in doing the scheduling. For example, in order to avoid films finishing at the same time, the sequence of start times may have to be reversed, putting the less popular film first, which is not what the policy of the cinema was. It can be important to avoid films finishing at the same time, because of the excessive crowds coming out and clashing with new customers coming in. This is likely to be less of a problem at the Brussels cinema because of dedicated exits. The Birmingham cinema uses the entrance as an exit also.

The second part of the group exercise is important because it will identify the real issues faced by the operations manager of a cinema.