The Booking and Ticketing Process of a Movie Theatre - Research Proposal Example

The project is a simulation of the booking and ticketing process of a local movie theatre. The local movie theatre accommodates approximately 1000 people in one sitting. it operates throughout the week but with varied peak and off-peak periods depending on the weekdays. To access the facility customers are required to obtain tickets for different movies of their choice. The theatre has only one ticketing station located at the entrance of the premises where the customers obtain their tickets.

The movie theatre serves a huge number of customers, and there is an increased number of customers, particularly during the holiday season. The limited number of ticketing stations results in long queues and unnecessary time wastage in the ticketing process. The customers always complain about the time wasted queuing to purchase the tickets. Additionally, most clients complain about missing the beginning of the movies for which they intend to watch.
The seats in the theatre are arranged into three sets; VIP lounge, Ordinary and back seats. Each of the seats is numbered depending on each category and they all have different pricing. The VIP lounge costs more followed by the ordinary and back seats respectively. The pricing also varies depending on the day of the week and the time. Tickets for movies shown on weekends and between 2 PM to 7 PM and 7 PM to 11 PM cost more than those on weekdays and during the day.
It takes one attendant approximately 3 minutes to serve one customer at a time in the current system that is operated by one attendant. There are a total of 3 attendants working different shifts.
Problem statement.

The major problem associated with the current system is the loss of revenue and lack of customer satisfaction occasioned by delays in the issuance of tickets to customers. The delay also results in a low number of customers resulting from the slow ticketing process. It has been observed that approximately 600 seats are always occupied in one sitting yet the capacity of the theatre is twice this number. Hence, there is underutilization of the facility since it is not filled.
Objectives.
This proposal aims to create a simulation whose main objective is to address the problem of inefficiency by eliminating the long queues and eventually increasing revenue collection.
To achieve this, the proposed simulation intends to create additional ticketing kiosks to a total of 6 kiosks strategically placed to enhance the ticketing process. It also intends to increase the ticketing options to allow online ticketing through the company’s website or an application installed on their smartphones (Law, 2009).

Expected Outcomes.
This proposal bears three scenarios if the number of ticketing kiosks is increased, the length of queues will be significantly reduced. If the Kiosks are increased, the revenue collected will significantly increase and at the same time, the theatre will be optimally utilized.
Initially, one client is served at a time but with the new proposal, six customers will be served at one time. It will take approximately 3 minutes to serve 6 customers at one time. The 3 attendants will no longer work in shifts as was the case earlier.
Increasing the number of kiosks will also mean increasing the number of staff to handle the ticketing process which has a direct impact on the efficiency of the ticketing process.
Simulation Scope.
The simulation only addresses the ticketing process of the movie theatre and involves the 6 proposed ticketing stations and not the entire operations of the movie theatre. Ticketing is done using a ticketing system that reserves a seat in the respective seat category (VIP lounge, Ordinary, and Backseat) and prints a receipt to the customer. These set of clients are allowed to make payments in cash or using their credit cards.
It also involves online booking and bookings from the customer's smartphone. One of the 6 kiosks will act as a central ticketing station where these set of clients are served and their tickets and seats reserved. This set of customers can only pay using their credit cards.

Object Flow Diagram (OFD).
The object Flow diagram provides summarized documentation of the entire ticketing process. It is also an effective communication tool during the discussion of the project (Beaverstock, Greenwood & Nordgren, 2010). Read More