How we increased efficiency of BBC’s studio booking
“The implementation of Wallchart® immediately increased the speed of studio allocation."
– Tim Durham, Operational and Planning Manager, BBC Radio Resources
Radio Production Resources (RPR), one of BBC Resources' 23 business units, was responsible for planning and managing the bookings for each of the studios. RPR had over 90 studios and 150 studio managers, each with specialist skills ranging from classical and rock and pop to drama and speech. With other complexities such as travel and turnarounds, the logistics and rostering of staff was extremely complex.
The BBC used a mainframe based system for inputting booking data and receiving schedules and limited reports. At that time the studios were split into five groups that were geographically disparate - up to a mile from Bush House in some cases - and each studio group was managed separately, a system that led to unbalanced utilisation. "It was really hard to keep track of studio allocation without constant phone calls", said Tim Durham, Operational and Planning Manager at BBC Radio Resources.
The Producer's Choice initiative revolutionised the way the BBC produced its services by taking away the obligation on producers to use BBC studios. This meant that BBC Resources had to provide studios and management at a competitive price.
Although the introduction of a competitive market structure did not immediately create an external production market, subsequent moves by the BBC did. As Durham concluded: "Our customers were told that we would reduce the number of people and studios available and would not have spare capacity. That forced people to look for outside studios which itself fuelled the external market." With Wallchart® the BBC was well positioned to compete effectively.
