Eckard Foltin

The Competitiveness Monitor as an Innovative Foresight Support System for Mobility, Logistics and Beyond

A more volatile and uncertain world today puts a premium on companies possessing foresight capabilities [e.g. 1]. As the industry at the center of globalisation, logistics is especially vulnerable, yet its efforts on strategic foresight is lagging behind compared to other industries – not at least due to the large prevalence of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME). As part of the Leading-edge Cluster Logistics and under the guiding topic of “Activating Cluster Potentials” the joint research project Competitiveness Monitor (CoMo) addresses this challenge. The result of the project will be the prototype of a collaborative online platform that combines three innovative supporting tools for futures-oriented decision-making in a foresight support system [cf. 2]. The project first underwent a rigorous multi-method requirement analysis. After project-internal workshops according to the “Volere Requirement Specification Template” we additionally surveyed the 130 cluster partners concerning their expectations and implemented a world-wide real-time Delphi study among approximately 1,000 futurists, thought leaders and foresight experts about the future role of information and communication technology (ICT) for foresight. At the moment the project is progressing according to plan, with two of the prototype applications already in programming.

Neues Beleuchtungskonzept für den Auto-Innenraum

Licht im Auto-Innenraum stammte bisher vor allem von kleinen, gut versteckten Gluhbirnen oder Leuchtdioden. Das konnte sich bald andern. Mit der „Smart Surface Technologie” lassen sich flache dreidimensionale Kunststoffteile herstellen, die beim Anlegen einer Wechselspannung uber ihre ganze Flache farbig leuchten.