Foresight for a (product) lifetime: developing a lifecycle- encompassing foresight process
Project Description
Dealing with discontinuities in the market, changing competitive advantages, and existing information uncertainties in decision-making processes are daily challenges for companies around the world. However, identifying and monitoring future market and technology trends promises support in this regard. While the current state of foresight already provides an extensive body of suitable analysis and planning methods for this matter, foresight research develops mostly detached from important management disciplines. One of those management disciplines is product lifecycle management, whose futureoriented decision-making is becoming increasingly complex due to intensifying competitive dynamics and advancing digitalization. Our research project recognizes the potential of foresight to minimize information uncertainty in product lifecycle management and aims to develop a novel lifecycle-encompassing foresight process for industrial companies. In doing so, we rely on the results of previous research, which demonstrate that enough foresight data sources and methods are available to cover the entire product lifecycle with foresight activities and that promising linkages between lifecycle and foresight research exist. Within the scope of our research the subject areas of future mobility and the industrial metaverse will form the application context for the planned foresight process.
Relevance to Liechtenstein
Several Liechtenstein-based companies provide valuable qualitative data for the research project. The mutual discussion of foresight matters is highly appreciated and supported by local companies. Existing and new contacts with local companies are maintained and promoted by the research project. Of course, industrial companies in Liechtenstein can also exploit the expected outcome of a new foresight process for lifecycle management for their own purposes.
Scientific, Economic and Societal Impact
The impact on practice is secured, first, by the fact that the underlying problem was partly derived from practice, and second, by the immediate practical applicability of the expected results. Discussions with industry experts revealed that the topic of foresight in general, and in particular the development of structured processes for integrating foresight activities into existing innovation management tasks, is of great practical relevance. A dedicated foresight process for product lifecycle management can serve as future guidance for better organizing and conducting foresight activities in industrial companies. Last but not least, the delineated trend insights for future mobility and the industrial metaverse can be exploited content-wise in practice.
