Creating services that generate sustainable revenue for Thai Royal Navy Museum

Project Overview

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Product-Service System Class of 2018

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This project is a collaboration between the Royal Thai Navy and the Department of Industrial Design at the School of Architecture, Art, and Design (SAAD) from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), for the class of the Industrial Design 4, focusing on the Product Service System Design.

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The Product-Service System approach seeks to transcend traditional design paradigms by emphasizing the creation of holistic and integrated solutions. It aims to formulate substantial business models that leverage creativity to bridge the gap between tangible products and intangible services. In the pursuit of these goals, the project is strategically focused to achieve both sustainability and to optimize customer satisfaction within the intricate network of stakeholders in the ecosystem. This collaboration underscores a transformative design thinking and the cultivation of innovation from academic institute to the industry.

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Product-Service System

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Process throughout the course

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According to the Product-Service System Design Program from Politecnico Milano; A product-service system is an integrated whole of products, services, spaces, communication and digital artifacts capable of offering organic and sustainable solutions to complex questions. A system made up also of people (users, suppliers, those working in the field and stakeholders) that interacts among each others to produce outcomes responding to a shared vision.

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Product Service System is a system comprising tangible and intangible together to fulfill customer needs. There are 3 classes of product service system.

1. Product Oriented PSS: This is a PSS where ownership of the tangible product is transferred to the consumer, but additional services, such as maintenance contracts, are provided.

2. Use Oriented PSS: This is a PSS where ownership of the tangible product is retained by the service provider, who sells the functions of the product, via modified distribution and payment systems, such as sharing, pooling, and leasing.

3. Result Oriented PSS: This is a PSS where products are replaced by services, for example, voicemail replacing answering machines.

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Royal Thai Navy Musuem

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Current Royal Thai Navy Museum

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Picture of current museum

Naval Museum is a special type of museum, established for collect and preserve of valuable ancient and historical items and places, that related to the Navy. Inside the museum, there are lots of naval historical information such as naval battles in the past, including the weapons used during that time. Furthermore, there are many ancient warship models such as the Royal Barges commissioned during the era of King Rama the Fifth, and the most interesting H.T.M.S. Matchanu.

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New Royal Thai Navy Museum

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New design of the museum

The Royal Thai Navy is determined to enhance its relationship with the citizen through by transforming its museum into a hub for learning about maritime battles history. Located on the Issaraphap Road, where the Naval facilities are concentrated, the museum is set to renovate the entire experience to encompass everything from the all spaces and exhibitions to the overall visitor experience, with the goal of establishing a fresh environment for citizens to engage with the navy.

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Royal Thai Navy Museum's challenges

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A fewer visitors, A fewer incomes.
How can a museum survive financially?

Thai museums are struggling with popularity among locals. Many have only permanent exhibitions, leading to limited appeal for recurring visitors. Additionally, the exhibitions lacks of well-crafted curation, resembling storage for antiques, and later lead to a attraction deficit and reduction of engagement.

Many museums in Thailand are treated as a
“Storage for Antiques”

Unlike many popular museums in Thailand that generate higher profits through diverse exhibits and activities, the Royal Thai Navy Museum operates differently. They only rely on a single permanent exhibition and depends on support from donations and government funding, which falls short to cover future expenses.

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Research Method

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Objective

The research objective is to gain comprehensive insights from both internal and external perspectives, encompassing individuals within the organization, users, related entities, and communities. The focus is on conducting qualitative exploration to empathetically understand the people within the ecosystem.

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Participant Recruitment

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Map of area for participant recruitment

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We conducted the interviewing by using Guerrilla interviewing using involves approaching people in public spaces to gather their perspectives. We conducted interviews by actively seeking potential participants near well-known tourist attractions within a 5km radius of the museum, targeting individuals from diverse demographic backgrounds.

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Interviews Topics

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The key actors are the visitors, and unraveling their motivations is pivotal in defining their goals. By integrating the Product-Service System methodology, we transcend traditional design thinking. This approach, enriched by PSS principles, reveals their mental models and behaviors of visitors through qualitative studies and interviews. The insights will enable the crafting of a design concept, facilitating the development of a museum service system that seamlessly caters to diverse visitor needs and aligns with their evolving expectations. The adoption of PSS principles is integral to shaping an enhanced museum experience, promoting sustainability and innovation throughout the visitor journey.

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Findings

Stakeholder Mapping - Understand ecosystem

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Stakeholder Maps

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In developing the new system, defining all the interactions and relationships among the individual stakeholders ,will result in resource optimization based on product function. Our research involves the exploring of potential stakeholders within the ecosystem to identify opportunity and to configure their relation.

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User's insights

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Guerilla Interview

Most students find history boring. Following interviews, it was discerned that the historical museum faces a notable challenge. Specifically, individuals lacking an interest in history may perceive the museum visit as unattractive. Conversely, museums in Thailand spotlighting the pop-culture are more attracting to the younger demographic. Visitors, particularly those from foreign locales, may include a historical museum visit during their exploration of other tourist attractions just to engage with the museum not content.

Students visit the historical museum only just to finish the work that they got assigned from the school.

Another important target group are families, particularly those with children who seeking quality time together. Museums are perceived as spaces where kids can learn while being entertained. However, the reality is that although children may find exhibits fascinating, they often looks for more interactive content and activities.

Parents love to take their kids to the museum to participate in the activities and would like them to learn something new and interesting.

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Subject-matter Interview

The Royal Navy aim to make the museum be a center of learning and foster the collaboration with community to create circular economy

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SWOT Analysis - Understand organization's context

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Organization also play crucial part in deliver the service. We have to understand the context of the organization. Conducting SWOT Analysis will help identifying and assessing internal and external factors that impact the PSS's development, implementation, and success. This analysis aims to leverage strengths, address weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate threats, providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making and optimizing the design and delivery of the integrated product and service offering.

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PEST Analysis - Understand related trends

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Apart from the user and the organization, trend or the environmental also affect the ecosystem as well. We use PEST Analysis to evaluate and understand the external factors that could impact an organization, project, or business. By identifying and analyzing these factors will help us gain insights into the external environment, anticipate potential opportunities and threats, and inform strategic decision-making. The goal is to identify opportunities and threats in the external environment, aiding strategic decision-making and enhancing the overall effectiveness of the system design.

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Persona

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After conducting wide ranges of ethnographic research then to move over to the ideation, we defined and organized the data according to sets of shared attributes to formulate into a personality type or Persona. This collection of persona represents the target users for the project to frame the opportunity space and focus on for building the concept.

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Insights & Opportunities Summary

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Exciting Attraction

Visitors are looking for more than one attraction but currently, the museum is displaying only permanent exhibition that also lacked of well-curating.

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More than museum

The museum contents are attracting only the people who interested or have something to do with history. To attract more people, museum need to be more.

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Prime Location

Museum located in the heart of various tourist spots and also have fascinating architecture and space to be utilized.

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Diverse Experts

Both the navy and surrounding communities have variety of expert in many fields.

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Circular Economy

Museum aims to achieve make contribution to the society. Surrounding communities are historical-valued and looking forward to collaborate.

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Design Challenge

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Ideation

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System Design Sketching

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Design Principle

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After we defined our challenges, we generated “design principle” to guide the ideation for the new system to be more holistic and unite. This method help us transit from the insight into exploring the concept. Also it help us build the alignment among the team to turn our descriptive insights into actionable statement. We started from clustering the insights and narrow them into around 3-5 principles to drive into the concept generation of new service system.

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Final Design

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Visitor Relationship

Museum Website

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Museum Website

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To cultivate a connection between the museum and its audience, we developed the museum's website to deliver current information and highlight upcoming events for visitors. The website serves as a central hub, offering access to all museum services. Additionally, it is linked to the Museum Thailand website, establishing a referral strategy. Visitors can engage with the museum through real-time chat for immediate communication.

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Museum membership

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Membercard set

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One strategy we've implemented to boost recurring visits to the museum is the membership program. Members gain exclusive access to priority and premium services, enhancing their overall museum experience. This service creates a stronger sense of community among members that can lead to the leveraging of the data collected through the membership program. By fostering long-term relationships with visitors, the museum anticipates a subsequent rise in revenue and popularity.

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Utilized Spaces

The Night Market

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Sunset over the lighthouse market

To cater to the people who not interested in historical stories, we have repurposed the museum space into a night market—a prevailing trend in Thailand. Through collaboration with SMEs and local craftsmen, we have curated a platform for the exhibition and sale of distinctive products. Positioned along the scene of Chao Phraya River, complemented by striking maritime architecture like the lighthouse and dockyards, the market stands as a unique and appealing destination.

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Space for rent

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The Royal Navy Museum has an amazing scenery, encompassing a dockyard, lighthouse, and the colonial architecture of the Navy Club building along the Chao Phraya river. These versatile spaces serve as ideal venues for various activities and events, ranging from concerts to weddings. Customers can easily book and rent these spaces through the museum's website, providing a convenient and accessible way to plan and organize their desired events.

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Stakeholder Collaboration

Local Community Collaboration

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The Kudichin Community, consisting of Thai-Portuguese descendants, is renowned for their distinctive Kudichin cake. Originally developed as an alternative to the king cake due to ingredient challenges in sourcing its ingredients in old-time Thailand. To support the local economy, we've established a café, offering their signature Kudichin cake for museum visitors to purchase. This initiative aims to foster a circular economy by generating income for the local community.

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Seasonal & Tradition-inspired event hosting

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Thai culture is rich in celebrations, often centered around the monarch and religious events, typically occurring in the heart of specific areas. Positioned as a historical learning hub, the museum will actively host a diverse range of events, becoming a focal point for cultural and celebratory activities. This strategic initiative not only establishes recurring events for visitors to revisit periodically but also contributes to building a strong and recognizable brand for the museum.

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Interactive Learning

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Navy Sea Scope - Sample course

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The museum is set to collaborate with various departments within the navy to introduce interactive learning activities. One such initiative is the Navy Sea Scope, a collaborative effort with the Department of Maritime Mapping. This engaging activity aims to educate children on how sailors navigate the sea using constellations. The kids will move from station to station, each representing an island, applying knowledge from astronomy and maps to enhance their understanding of maritime navigation.

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Museum's reminisce

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Museum souvenir

Lighthouse cnadle holder

Sailing boat glass cover

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The souvenir strategy revolves around creating distinctive and meaningful keepsakes that encapsulate the essence of the museum's unique offerings. These souvenirs aim to serve as tangible mementos for visitors, fostering a lasting connection with their museum experience. The strategy focuses on incorporating elements inspired by the story of seaside living combine with the museum brand’s essence. By blending creativity and navy story, the design strategy seeks to offer a diverse range of souvenirs that appeal to a broad audience and contribute to the museum's overall branding and revenue generation.

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Navy Battle Board Game

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"Navy Battleship" offers an immersive journey where players take on the role of naval commanders, navigating through historical sea battles and strategic missions. This engaging game intricately incorporates elements from the museum's exhibits, transforming learning into an interactive and enjoyable experience. This provide an entertaining yet educational experience, allowing players to delve into the rich maritime history showcased at the museum as a souvenir for interactive learning.

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Prototypes

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Documentation

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System Map showing how the services are operate

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Interaction Table show the sequencing of stakeholder interactions

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Bibliography

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Vezzoli,C.,Kohtala,C.,Srinivasan,A.,Xin,L.,Fusakul,M.,Sateesh,D.andDiehl,J.C.(2014).

Product Service System Design for Sustainability.London: Green leaf Publishing.  

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UNEP.(2002).

Product Service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for Sustainable Solutions.Paris:UNEP–DTIE.

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VanHalen,C.,Vezzoli,C.andWimmer,R.(2005)

Methodology for Product – ServiceSystem innovation. :http://www.mepss.nl.

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Thailand Creative & Design Center (2014)

Service Design Workbook.Thailand Creative & Design Center

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Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider (2010)

This is Service Design Thinking.BIS Publishing

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Vijay Kumar. (2013).

101 Design Methods: A structured approach for driving innovation in Your Organization. Wiley

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Museum Thailand. (2016).

Museum 4.0. Museum Thailand

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Team member

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Paul P.

Creating services that generate sustainable revenue for Thai Royal Navy Museum

Year

2018

Role

Design Student

Design at

KMITL

For

Thai Royal Navy Musuem

Project Overview

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