At this museum, each exhibition must pass through six preparation stages, numbered 1 through 6, before it can be opened to the public. While an exhibition is still moving through these stages, its current stage is recorded at the end of each calendar day. Once Stage 6 is finished, the exhibition is considered open.
Most stages require either 1 or 2 days of work, and none is permitted to last beyond 3 days. If an exhibition remains longer than this limit, it is regarded as delayed. If an exhibition is discontinued, it is assigned Stage 0, which indicates that the process has been terminated and the exhibition will not open.
The six stages of exhibition preparation, with departments and timeline shares, are grouped into three phases: Early, Middle, and Final.
| Stage | Department | Phase | Timeline Share (%) |
| 1 | Curation | Early | 15 |
| 2 | Conservation | Early | 25 |
| 3 | Design | Middle | 30 |
| 4 | Installation | Middle | 20 |
| 5 | Administration | Final | 5 |
| 6 | Operations | Final | 5 |
The museum keeps a log that records the stage of each exhibition for every day it remains in preparation. The excerpt below shows the log as of Day 5 of Week 7. For example,
Modern Sculpture began on Day 3 (D-3) of Week 6, spent 2 days in Stage 1, then 3 days in Stage 2, followed by 2 days in Stage 3, and has now been in Stage 4 for 3 days.
| Exhibition | W6: D-2 | W6: D-3 | W6: D-4 | W6: D-5 | W6: D-6 | W6: D-7 | W7: D-1 | W7: D-2 | W7: D-3 | W7: D-4 | W7: D-5 |
| Ancient Coins | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Modern Sculpture | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Medieval Tapestries | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Impressionist Paintings | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Lost Civilizations | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |