The census of production systems in the Italian engineering industry (carried out by UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE) highlights that the south of Italy (Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Sardinia, Sicily) was the protagonist between 1996 and 2005 of an extraordinary development: the total number of machines of such southern companies, in short, grew from 6.5% to 11.9% of total installations, thanks to dynamism unequalled in the rest of the country. It is no coincidence that updates of such resources (machinery less than ten years old) in the South came to 10.3%, compared to 7.6% in total. Even more significantly, the total number of machines in the South is second only to Piedmont in terms of automation/integration content: 31.5% of machines fitted with numerical controls; 12.6% integrated into complex systems.