The Lean Museum Service
My reading up of Lean Manufacturing and its application to the Service Industries has lead me to wonder how it might be applied to the Museum world. Google only reveals one hit which is a display of collections in empty shops in St Greigen.
It counts as 'lean' as it maximises public enjoyment while minimising the overhands - shops get the collection to the people without having to invest in Museum premises.
I suspect that the Old Operating Theatre Museum might have aspects of lean philosophy behind it? I'm not implying we are necessarily a paradigm in all arreas but the are some aspects we do particularly cost effectively and may be useful to build upon in an exploration of the idea of 'the Lean Museum Service'.
Firstly, we have mostly done away with an out-moded hierarchy and line management structure. Staff work cooperatively (mostly) and largely control their own time tables (although the public dictate a lot of the timings). Staff tend to do that which is necessary because they know it is necessary rather than because they are told to do it, or as the result of a heavy planning system.
We do not put barriers between the curatorial staff and the public - the curatorial staff are also the shop staff and the cleaning staff, so the public have instant access to the curatorial staff when asking or ringing the museum - we do not need to put people on hold mostly to answer their enquiries. The working day is shaped by the demands of the public and not vice versa.
As in Lean manufactoring we do not have a mentality shaped by division of labour. Although some roles are specialised most staff do similar work for most of the time, we have specialised roles on top of the core work. We have a relatively light bureaucratic footprint -as staff meetings are difficult to arrange because we all work on different days, we minimise the number of them, and instead deal with issues as and when they come up - by impromptu discussions, notes in diary, emails, or by unilaterial fiat. We write down procedures only when necessary.
As we do not have a large bureaucracy we can react to requests for filming, art projects quite quickly and can make decisions without delay, so we can tailor events, and visits to suit the visitors without having to offer only a small restrictive set of options.
The downside has always seemed to be that we are perhaps undermanaged and that perhaps too much was left to individual decision. Lean maybe makes this a virtue and perhaps the management is happening in an organic way but not in a top down hierarchical way. The proof of the pudding would be that in 18 years we have not lost any opening time through staff absence and have only had to close because of building work or the occasional power cut - all beyond our control.
I will have to explore this issue more thoroughly. Perhaps now that I can put a name to what we do especially well at the Old Operating Theatre Museum, we can begin to be more proud of it and build on it. Strangely enough many years ago, when Dan Chadwick was at SEMS the museum was used in a visit by civil servants as a possible model for other museums.
Since then we have been preoccupied in trying to purchase the Church below and have not been able to build on this reputation - maybe now the Church has been sold, we can now push on and take our 'Lean Museum Service' forward and turn it into a business model.
It counts as 'lean' as it maximises public enjoyment while minimising the overhands - shops get the collection to the people without having to invest in Museum premises.
I suspect that the Old Operating Theatre Museum might have aspects of lean philosophy behind it? I'm not implying we are necessarily a paradigm in all arreas but the are some aspects we do particularly cost effectively and may be useful to build upon in an exploration of the idea of 'the Lean Museum Service'.
Firstly, we have mostly done away with an out-moded hierarchy and line management structure. Staff work cooperatively (mostly) and largely control their own time tables (although the public dictate a lot of the timings). Staff tend to do that which is necessary because they know it is necessary rather than because they are told to do it, or as the result of a heavy planning system.
We do not put barriers between the curatorial staff and the public - the curatorial staff are also the shop staff and the cleaning staff, so the public have instant access to the curatorial staff when asking or ringing the museum - we do not need to put people on hold mostly to answer their enquiries. The working day is shaped by the demands of the public and not vice versa.
As in Lean manufactoring we do not have a mentality shaped by division of labour. Although some roles are specialised most staff do similar work for most of the time, we have specialised roles on top of the core work. We have a relatively light bureaucratic footprint -as staff meetings are difficult to arrange because we all work on different days, we minimise the number of them, and instead deal with issues as and when they come up - by impromptu discussions, notes in diary, emails, or by unilaterial fiat. We write down procedures only when necessary.
As we do not have a large bureaucracy we can react to requests for filming, art projects quite quickly and can make decisions without delay, so we can tailor events, and visits to suit the visitors without having to offer only a small restrictive set of options.
The downside has always seemed to be that we are perhaps undermanaged and that perhaps too much was left to individual decision. Lean maybe makes this a virtue and perhaps the management is happening in an organic way but not in a top down hierarchical way. The proof of the pudding would be that in 18 years we have not lost any opening time through staff absence and have only had to close because of building work or the occasional power cut - all beyond our control.
I will have to explore this issue more thoroughly. Perhaps now that I can put a name to what we do especially well at the Old Operating Theatre Museum, we can begin to be more proud of it and build on it. Strangely enough many years ago, when Dan Chadwick was at SEMS the museum was used in a visit by civil servants as a possible model for other museums.
Since then we have been preoccupied in trying to purchase the Church below and have not been able to build on this reputation - maybe now the Church has been sold, we can now push on and take our 'Lean Museum Service' forward and turn it into a business model.
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