Pixar is,
of course, known for creating
animated features that are beloved by viewers across generations. Every Pixar movie made since the 2001
introduction of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature has been nominated
for that award ether quality is measured in terms of criti- leadership in cal claim. popularity eamings, or technological computer animation. the company routinely excels. Part of the credit for Pixar's repeated
success in deliv popular movies goes to a production ering award-winning
process that drives for excellence.
Story ideas come from PDar's own creative people. who sometimes leave for cabin north of
headquarters to hold a company-owned retreats devoted to polishing those
ideas. The director and story artists
draw these ideas on tens of thousands of digi-
tal storyboards which are converted into story reels, sets of images that can be projected for
vewing with dialogue provided by employees.
The traditional approach would be to go from an idea to a script but the
use of sto boards and story reels enables teams to begin working on a variety
of issues immediately to get all the elements of a m just nght) Employees in the art department research
details to fill out each scene, set
dressers prepare the back- grounds, modelers build the images of each character
and layout draws the overall form and motion.
Actors visit the studio to record their lines. Then animators go to work using complex computer
programs to bring the story to life. and
the lighting department adds the effects to show how each scene is lit. The visual information is rendered into
frames(24 frames per second of the movie).
Then the mixers add the music,
voices, and sound effects.
The whole process takes about four years
and is incredibly painstaking. Problems
are sought, identified, and comected right up until the release of a
film and they may involve matters that seem trivial. In a rainstorm, every rain drop has to be accounted for with
a computer program: on an animal, code must be written to draw every strand of
fur ocean scenes require knowledge of the physics of waves, and lighting design must consider the
different ways that light reflects of of skin and plastic. Why bother Because the attention to detail
may not be noticed but is one reason that viewing a Pixar film is such a
pleasure. For example, in Cars 2,
a scene shows two ships being dropped into the sea one Pixar employee
spent three months getting the foam from the spray to look just right. Chief creative officer John Lasseter explains
that the splash is crucial because the ships have to feel big-their size
rela- tive to the hero of the film is
important to the story.
Even as Pixars teams go from one film to
the next as we saw in the previous part of the case, they are continu- ally looking for where they can improve. In the words of Pixar's president Ed
Catmull. Success hides problems." He doesn't want to coast on the knowledge
that review ers and families loved the last film: he wants Pixar to figure out how it can make
the next film even better One con-
sequence is that after each movie,
Pixar upgrades its soft- ware to
work more powerfully and effectively for the next project. Another is that the company will take a
chance on fresh talent with new ideas. A
case in point is Pixar's deci- sion to
hire director Brad Bird in 2000 after he produced a film called The Iron
Giant, which won crtical acclaim but
lost money. Bird expected tight controls
from managers nervous about his previous track record, but instead they gave him wide latitude, and he used his freedom to direct two big
winners, The Incredibles and
Ratatouille.
This unrelenting focus on quality has made
Pixar a valu- able and beloved
studio, but it brings its own
challenges. Along with Pixars success
have come growth and demand for more and more movies. Early on,
Pixar had produced about one movie every two years. That gave employees time to work and leam as
a team. Now, as pixar moves toward producing two or three
movies a year that is becoming impossible.
On any given day, four or more
movies are at some stage of production.
As employees involved in the early stages complete their work they must
move to the next project while others are going ful steam ahead on the earlier
projects. That means only a portion of
each team has time to leam the lessons that are occuming on any project at any
time. In addition, dif-
ferent teams are using different software, and sometimes the software upgrades require
new hardware as well. The pressure to
move fast is beginning to divide the company into separate groups with separate
production processes. Being responsive
and agile was natural for Pixar in its early years. The challenge facing the company for the
future is how to keep its magic alive as success makes it a big enterprise.
1. Based on this description of
Pixar, do you think it could benefit
from a quality process such as adoption of six sigma or so 900 Why or why not?
>= YES,
by adopting sigma higher then the profits will be greater because the quality
is guaranteed.
2. Pixar is known more for
quality than for speed and efficiency.
Which principles of technology and organizational agility could help the
company stay agile without sacrificing quality as it grows?
>= Technology and agility affect the organization's members to
ensensiasi and production speed without reducing the quality of the technology
and agility due to the members of the organization will increase the speed and
production without sacrificing quality ensensiasi
