Description according to manufacturers
Companies are continuing their efforts to develop the functional economy. Some of them have moved into the electronic waste recycling market and rely on optimised energy (self-supply, self-sufficiency). Investments to optimise energy consumption are multiplying. The productive apparatus is recycled, reused and restructured. Manufacturers are notably reinvesting in forgotten technologies (e.g. medium-sized furnaces) while optimising their ecological efficiency.
Industrial players rely on financial support from multiple complementary sources, coming from investors on the financial markets and from subsidies granted by the region, the national level and Europe. They have had to restructure in order to incorporate the dimensions of digital performance, ecological frugality and local dynamics.
Manufacturers generate less turnover but achieve reasonable profitability owing to the overall reduction in costs (tempered by recycling processes, which consume resources). They generate less overproduction, manufacture to order and manage their stocks better. With this focus on frugal performance, the use of big data makes it possible to gain a better understanding of customers, their needs, their habits and so on, which facilitates on-demand production in units relocated as close as possible to demand.
Companies serve local society and rely on suitable skills, which enables them to improve their performance and to become essential players locally. The 'local' dimension varies according to the field of activity (region for food, continent for aeronautics).
They are subject to very heavy taxation in order to finance public support and solidarity. At the same time, they benefit from EU support schemes for new 'green' and responsible investments.
This local economic dynamic does not, however, mean self-sufficiency. Far from being isolated within a region, manufacturers are connected to one another through international mutual-support communities: communities of practice are developing between industrial players, who exchange views on subjects of specific interest to them.