With our sights firmly set on the successes to come in 2023, this is a good time to ensure we have also learned from past years. Wes-Tech is committed to continued innovation in manufacturing automation applications, and so we were drawn to this recent post from Visual Capitalist, which maps the most innovative economies in the world based on data from the UN World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index (GII). According to WIPO, the GII “captures the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.”
The index creates an innovation score for each country using 81 indicators across seven main categories: Business Sophistication, Market Sophistication, Infrastructure, Human Capital & Research, Institutions, Creative Outputs, Knowledge & Technology Outputs. The United States came in second overall on the list, topped only by Switzerland, and the GII breaks down the markers that led to this ranking (such as being a top spender on R&D with four of the five highest-spending R&D companies based in the U.S., strong university-industry R&D collaboration, and intangible asset intensity).
While it is excellent news that the U.S. is a world leader in innovation, the overall situation is summed up in this excerpt from the introduction of the 2022 GII written by Darren Tang, Director General of WIPO:
“This year’s GII finds the innovative sectors of the world economy at a crossroads. On the one hand, science and innovation investments continued to surge in 2021, performing strongly even at the height of a once in a century pandemic. International patent filings, R&D expenditure, scientific publications and other key innovation metrics also all showed continued growth… On the other hand, even as the pandemic recedes, storm clouds remain overhead, with increasing supply-chain, energy, trade and geopolitical stresses.”
Our recent posts on Reshoring, the Rising Cost of Labor, and Innovation through Manufacturing Automation had similar topics to those that the GII discovered—specifically that the last few years have seen negatives in terms of staffing and supply chain difficulties, but also a number of positives regarding the trajectory of innovation in manufacturing automation and the possibilities for reshoring to help improve some of the issues. We’ve seen Wes-Tech customers walking this line, navigating the crossroads between increasing automation and investing in innovation while working to shore up supply chain and staffing needs.
As we move into 2023, Wes-Tech is here to help you consider where automation and innovation can drive your future successes, help you embrace innovation, and design the right solutions to help you optimize your resource utilization and increase your profitability.
Contact us today for a consultation and find out what Wes-Tech can do for you.
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