Murphy’s Law: Exhibit Break Down; Warranty Expired

Friday, April 24, 2015 2:39 PM by Betty Brennan in Process and Project Management


Have you visited a newly-built or renovated museum or nature center exhibit only to find several exhibits already posting the infamous “Down For Repair” sign? Surprisingly, we see this quite often. If you paid several hundred thousand dollars for a product that is supposed to last for years and breaks down in two, wouldn’t you be upset? What if you put a metal roof on your house and the manufacturer says it will last 30 years… and within two years you have a leak. Wouldn’t you call the manufacturer and expect an immediate fix with a number of apologies?

Several folks here at Taylor Studios recently visited a site where the exhibits were installed two years ago. As they walked through the gallery, they found flip doors broken, interactives not working, graphics deteriorating and more. Because most exhibit fabrication firms only back their product for a year, this client never bothered calling them.

Often exhibit components are highly custom and unique. Therefore, R&D on every unique component prior to installation is a challenge. Exhibit fabrication is not similar to the car industry that has been perfecting their manufacturing process for hundreds of years. And if someone else manufactures an exhibit component, like a Sony flatscreen, it seems unreasonable to expect the exhibit fabricator to back up someone else’s product. However, you should expect some expertise from your design/build partner to only recommend components that are known to withstand museum visitors. And if their custom component does break down unexpectedly you should feel very comfortable calling them to repair it. You hired them to build you a long-lasting exhibit.

At Taylor Studios we know our clients’ durability expectations. After 25 years of putting ourselves in our clients’ shoes, we have learned many lessons. We have learned that volunteers and staff that are elderly should not have to fix an exhibit accessible only by crawling through a children’s exhibit tunnel. Yes, unfortunately we learned that the hard way. We now make sure anything that needs maintenance is easy access. We learned that standard part or color that can buy purchased locally are the best types of parts.

We over-engineer our exhibits, know their usage cycles, test the interactives, have quality-control processes and more, so our clients don’t have to worry. We know our client’s focus is visitation, not maintenance. Yet we still spend a lot of time talking to each client’s maintenance staff. We understand their expertise and desires.

One of our core values is honesty and integrity. We believe if our exhibit isn’t built to the demanded life expectancy, our integrity is violating. Additionally, we want to push ourselves to be the highest quality exhibit firm in the industry.

What do you expect of the longevity of your exhibits?

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