Theatrical rider
A theatrical (or technical) rider is a list of demands that a performer has for a performance at a specific concert. Normally the rider is the same throughout the tour. If the regent does not meet the requirements of this it could lead to breach of contract, this could cost The Regent money.
The technical rider states who is to supply what. For example, small artists will require most of the equipment to be supplied by The Regent; this will be stated in the rider. The technical rider also states the timings, and who has control of the regent at each stage, for example The Regents’ manager will have control up until the performance when the band’s manager will take control.
Chris is the technical manager of the regent. His job is to ensure that all of the requirements of the technical rider are met without breaching The Regent’s policies and procedures. The technical rider helps the efficient and effective management of physical resources to the regent because it allows them to get everything ready.
The technical rider also discusses training and legal requirements that I have discussed later in this report.
Contract
All the contracts at the regent have a regular review. For example, their cleaning contract is reviewed every month, this is to ensure that they are meeting the terms of the contract their and providing a good service.
They also check other contractors, for example, wholesalers, they will check for delivery times, how often they are late, accuracy of the order, etc.
This contributes to the effective and efficient management of physical resources as it enables them to ensure that they are receiving the best service for money, also if something is not effective, i.e. they are not fulfilling the terms of the contract, The Resource Manager could discuss this with them, or under terms mentioned in the contract, dismiss them and find a new contractor. This allows the regent to receive best value for money.
Sub-contract
When The Regent contract out work the contractors may give the work to other people, this is knows as sub-contracting this means that they can make a profit of it. This is bad, as The Regent has to deal with a third company. This can lead to miscommunication, and leading to a low level of workmanship.
This ties closely to getting the contract right, if they don’t state that they can’t sub-contract they are well within their rights to do so.
The Regent have a policy that the contract states that sub contracting is not allowed, this leads to effective management to prevent the reasons listed above.
Equipment restrictions
The Regent has a policy that the lighting rig must not hold more than 6 ton. This is due to Health and Safety, for example, LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998) states that when manual-handling people should not be expected to lift more than the restricted amount. Second the lighting rig may break under more weight than this.
The regent set a procedure that prevents performers hanging more than 6 ton, it is the job of Chris, the technical manager, to inform the artists that the technical rider can’t be met; this is to prevent the artists turning up and the contract being breached.
This procedure is effective because it prevents the regent from facing extensive fines and helps them meet current legislation.
Training
The Regent has a procedure to ensure that all staff are fully trained. This contributes to the effective and efficient management of physical resources because it helps them meet legal standards. The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 state that risks to people’s health and safety from equipment that they use at work be minimised and prevented. By providing training The Regent is managing Physical Resources effectively.
Fire alarm
Production doors
If there is signs of a fire there is a primary alarm that sounds that informs the front of house manager that there may be a problem, this allows the front of house manager, along with the bands representatives, who may be in control of the regent at that time, to make an informed decision about whether to evacuate the public from the building.
If the public are to be evacuated, the regent use a sweeping technique. Each member of staff will be assigned an area of the auditorium to evacuate.
Front enterance
For example, two might be responsible for the stalls – sending people out from behind the stage through the production doors, two for the boxes, sending people out through the front doors of the building, and two for the upper circle sending people out through the front entrance. And they will evacuate each section one person at a time.
The regent have a policy to leave wheelchair-assisted people to get out last, this is because wheelchairs can block up the doorways, making it hard for the majority of people to get out, this is because it is better to leave them in a sterile area until a pathway has been cleared to take them out to safety. This makes the evacuation of the regent more effective and smooth, therefore in turn making it an effective and efficient way to manage physical resources.
Overall the fire alarm policy is effective in helping the efficient management of physical resources; this is because it allows people to get out calmly, without people getting injured in the kerfuffle, consequently increasing the number of people who are likely to survive a dangerous incident such as a fire.
Risk assessment
The Regent always have to complete a risk assessments for every show that is on there. The purpose of this is to reduce the risks associated with a specific show, and aims to reduce these.
A risk assessment may be done by the production company or the artists or bands representatives. However if this is not done the risk assessment has to be completed by The Regent, if the production company has completed one it will be included in the technical rider.
The risk assessment is effective and efficient in helping the management of physical resources because it prevents serious accidents from occurring. If the risk assessment shows that the risks are too great, then the show will be cancelled. An example of this can be applied to the circus of horrors. They put on a show and they had a barrel of liquid accelerant on the left of the stage, and on the right they had someone doing tricks with an angle grinder. This was a fire risk as the sparks from the angle grinder could have gone into the barrel of liquid accelerant and caused a fire. Therefore the show was cancelled.
The risk assessment also contributes to the successful and efficient management of physical resources as it reduces accidents such as a fire, would have been a significant cost to The Regent.
License procedures
The Regent has to have license holders on sight whenever the bar is open, and also when they play music.
Music license holders.
The regent as they have to have someone on site who is a music license holder. This is an additional cost if they have to have the staff on site for legal reasons, but do not actually need them to do any work. This does not help the effective and efficient management of physical resources as The Regent have a budget of £250, 000 for this year, they have been told that this has to be reduced be 30% next year. This will leave them with £175, 000. Having to have an extra license holder in site will not help them achieve this target.
Noise rotation.
The staff at The Regent are rotated around from their positions, i.e. from front of house to bar staff. This is done every hour, and staff are also provided with earplugs. This will prevent the staff hearing from being damaged, Therefore helping the management of physical resources to be effective and efficient. However the public are there at their own accord, therefore the regent does not need to consider these in the noise rotation policy. Any noise above 80dB (decibels) is unacceptable, also bass carries along, irrespective of how loud the music is, it’s the regents responsibility to resolve this.
Alcohol license holders.
The legal requirement for someone to be on site who has an alcohol license could be seen as an inconvenience to The Regent, nevertheless they can get this member of staff to work on the bar, therefore they are performing two roles and being more productive. This helps the effective and efficient management of physical resources as they are bringing in money to the business, this will help them achieve their target to increase profit.
Conclusion
The conclusion that can be drawn is therefore that the management of physical resources is effective. They have some policies that maybe don’t help towards the effective and efficient management, nevertheless there are many that they follow to help them manage physical resources with efficiency and effectiveness, also these policies and procedures help them meet legal requirements. For example, the technical rider helps them to meet the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.
In the light of these conclusions, there are some things that could lead to a more efficient and effective management of physical resources. Below are recommendations to improve the physical resources, with justifications through the benefits.
D1 – Make recommendations for improving physical resources in a selected workplace.
Stock Taking
I recommend that their paper-based system should be changed so that the management of the stock levels for physical resources can be done on a computer.
In addition, a newsletter could inform employees that if they take any stock they must record this on the system, so that when levels are low the resource manager can re-stock. This would prevent low stock levels, and people taking stock unauthorised. The regent could also provide their staff with training, in order for them to effectively use this stock taking system.
This will help the regent as they can become wiser as to the ordering of stock, for example, this could prevent them for over ordering, this would help them towards their aim of reducing their budget from the council.
Hemp and pulley
This is the name given to the mechanism to use to lift up and down the lighting rig above the stage. The lighting rig must only hold 6 ton this is because if it holds anymore it may break. If The Regent has a celebrity or anyone on the stage at the time it breaks this will not bee good Public Relations for them.
It is recommended that The Regent update this system to be electronic. This will enable them to rise and lower the lighting rigs more quickly, therefore increasing productivity, this is very important in the theatrical industry, as they have to work tight deadlines and only have a small amount of time to set up the lighting, it is currently hard work raising and lowering the lighting rig manually, it is also very time consuming.
Also this will help The Regent come in line with current legislation, for example LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations) 1998.
By using an electric motor to operate the hemp and pulley system this will also result in staff being more satisfied and can lead to better staff retention. This will benefit the regent financially, specifically given as they have to reduce their costs by 30% to £175, 000.
Overall By making the hemp and pully electronic it will improve the physical resources and will result in prevent accidents, bringing the regent in-line with current health and safety regulations and also benefit staff retention.
Stage
There are a number of problems with the stage that render it not fit-for-purpose.
Initially, the stage is not a sufficient size for the scale of shows that are performed there. The regent is capable of holding 1, 551 people, the types of performances that are there are relatively big, and require a substantial stage. A bigger stage is also important as it is too small to keep the scenery on it, therefore they have to keep it outside, and rotate it around in the interval of acts through the production doors, this is bad during the winter months particularly, mainly because the scenery can get damaged in the harsh weather, and also the cold gets in through the production doors and lowers the temperature of the auditorium, this does not affect the public as they are there at their own accord, however the staff are told where to work, and a temperature of at least 16C, this is stated under Thermal Comfort in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations of 1992.
Secondly the stage is not fit-for-purpose as the back of the stage is not straight, it is curved, and this is a problem for the production companies since all of their stage plans are the same for every location. This means that when they come to a location, such as The Regent, they have problems with things such as scenery.
At present the regent deals with this situation by forewarning the production companies of this. Ideally the recommended solution to this would be to refurbish and expand the stage. This would improve the physical resources of the regent, making the building more fit-for-purpose.
If the companies fixed the stage in these ways it would improve efficiency and effectiveness of physical resources resulting in production companies being interested in their performers and artists using the regent as a venue. This would result in The Regent satisfying customers and the local community. This is because the regent will be bringing higher listed celebrities to Ipswich, this would lead to repeat business, and a surplus in profit.
The cost of the renovation of the stage is at an estimated £9-10 million, this would be at the expense of Ipswich Borough Council, it is very unlikely that The Regent would be able to receive the funds from IBC, a solution to this could be that they complete the work in phases, therefore spreading the cost over time, this will enable them to manage the financing solution.
Toilets
Currently there are not enough toilets for the general public to use. The amount of toilets is defined by current legislation (Welfare Regulations 1992)
The law states on every new build:
- Every 100 men = 4 toilets/ urinals & equal amount of washbasins.
- Every 100 women = 5 toilets & equal amount of washbasins.
Women: 40
Men: 30
These numbers do not include toilets for the staff. This is of the same ratio.
The regent at maximum can hold 1551 people, this means that at full capacity, going by the national average of 51% of the population being female and 49% being male, then using this ratio there must be at least 40 toilets for women, and at least 30 for men.
It is also to have enough toilets for the public to use to keep them happy. An average interval lasts for about 10 minuets, the public may need to go to the toilet, get a drink, and maybe some food. If they are wasting time queuing for the toilets they will be less concerned with spending money getting food and drink. This is bad for the success of the regent,
The regent should have more toilets for the public and staff to use. This would result in them meeting legal standards, and also satisfying customers again, which is vital to the survival of the organisation as it is being run by the local council it is important that it is not run at the expense of the tax payer.
The extra toilets could be placed in the outhouse, this would be a good solution to utilizing that space, as the regent have no real use for it, and also it is listed which meant that they can’t knock it down. S negative of this is that the public would have to travel outside to use them, however the regent could build a connecting bridge.
Reliability
There were limitations to this evaluation, first I made notes from the resources manager, and this means some information could have been lost in transmission, this brings me to my next point, and I have only visited the regent once, therefore any misinformation I was not able to clarify.
Conclusion
To conclude there are many improvements that need to be made for the regent, however these will be at a great expense to the organisation, this money would need to be sourced from Ipswich Borough Council, it is unlikely that IBC will provide all of the money to make these improvements in one go, this is because IBC have other services that they have to fund, however The Regent could complete the work in phases, spreading the cost. They could start with the small cost things, such as the Hemp and Pulley system and then progress onto the stage, which itself could also be split into different phases, as it is such a large project.
Bibliography
Welfare regulations, HSE, 1992, retrieved 25th March 2012, <http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/3004/>
Thermal Comfort, HSE, 2011, retrieved 25th March 2012, http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/thermal/faq.htm
Ipswich Regent & Corn Exchange, IBC, 2011, retrieved 25th March 2012, <https://apps.ipswich.gov.uk/PEO/>
Notes from regent talk