Liza WOHLFART, Fraunhofer IAO
Uwe SCHLEINKOFER, Fraunhofer IPA

Track's Contacts : 

liza.wohlfart[AT]iao.fraunhofer.de
uwe.schleinkofer[AT]ipa.fraunhofer.de

Entry-level solutions, also called Frugal Innovations, bridge the gap between high quality and low prices. They consider constraints as much an opportunity as a challenge that helps innovators put a clear focus on what customers really want and value. Frugal Innovations in addition are often sustainable from an ecological and social perspective, and they address an obvious gap in many markets: the medium segment in between sophisticated cutting edge offerings and low-quality products.

Renowned Frugal Innovators include large market players such as Siemens, Zeiss and Accor with a focus on physical products but also medium-sized companies and various service providers. And Frugal Innovation is not only a corporate discipline. Maker Movement/ grassroots inventors also often excel in frugal solutions, they just come from a different angle and have their own agenda.

The track invites both corporate and grassroots frugal innovators from all industries to present their projects and to talk about lessons learned and future visions. The track is organized by Fraunhofer's Center for Frugal Products and Manufacturing Systems in Stuttgart, Germany.