As Chairman and CEO of Digital Domain, Scott Ross runs one of the largest digital production studios in the world. His studio won an Academy Award for doing the simulation of the sinking of the Titanic in the movie with the same name. It also created the digital waves that wiped out the horsemen in Lord of the Rings. Operations management is unique at Digital Domain because no two projects are ever the same. One day they may be making a digital cow (O Brother, Where Art Thou), on another a digital spaceship (Apollo 13), and on still another digital waves (Titanic). Digital is both a production and service provider. How so? In addition to producing digital scenes for movies, the company advises movie producers as to what is possible to do digitally. Still, certain activities, such as facility location and facility layout, are common to both service organizations and production firms. Since many movies are made in Los Angeles, it's important for Digital Domain to be close to the city. Actors are often chosen from that area, as are workers and specialists at Digital. The company's most important resource, however, is its workers. Thus, facilities layout is designed to make the job of workers easier, yet efficient. For example, there's a combination conference room and cafeteria. Given the company's passion for quality, everything is designed to be clean and logical. Facility layout assists workers in developing the highest-quality product possible given time and money constraints.

Materials requirement planning (MRP) is a computer-based operations management system that uses sales forecasts to make needed parts and materials available at the right time and place. Since Digital's primary resource is people, the company lists 54 key disciplines in its database, so it's easy to find the right person for the right job. For example, a project may come up on Wednesday that demands having resources available the next Monday. People have to be contacted and hired just in time to keep the project on time and within budget.

The company does much of its purchasing on the Internet. It also uses flexible manufacturing. To keep costs down, Digital also uses lean manufacturing, the production of goods using less of everything: less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment in tools, and less engineering time for a given project. To keep costs down the company does a lot of pre-visualizing- simulating projects to determine the best way to proceed.

Of course, mass customization is basically what Digital Domain is all about: creating new and different scenes that can't be duplicated. However, once the company learns to create artificial waves or some other image, it is easier to duplicate a similar image next time. Since film is very expensive, many ideas are created using pen and pencil first. From such “primitive” tools, the company goes on to use computer-aided design. Making movies is expensive. Everything needs to be done as planned. Scott Ross knows it's show business, and the accent is on business, and making a profit. For this reason, Digital uses computerized Gantt charts to follow goods in process. Getting things done right and on time is the hallmark at Digital Domain.

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Reality on Request - Digital Domain

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1			Do you have an appreciation for operationsmanagement now that you’ve seen howexciting such a job can be at a company likeDigital Domain?
2			Mass customization is critical in the productionof movies and special effects. As a consumer,what benefits do you see in beingable to buy custom-made shoes, clothes,automobiles, and more?
3			What lessons did you learn from this videothat you could apply at any job you might get?
4			This video points out that certain workers arevery focused on quality and that there comes atime when you have to stop improving thingsbecause time has a cost. Have you had tomake a trade-off between perfection and “goodenough”? What were the consequences?