I agree in broad terms that cheaper labor is not necessarily worse labor if you get it by moving countries. I am not sure how far that logic goes - I think there are advantages to controlling your own production process and that control can be easier with geographic proximity. There is also a question of how much the people managing the factory care about product quality.
Maybe I’m agreeing with your last point but with a different emphasis? The more a brand shops for cheap labor, the more I assume the brand has a corporate structure where manufacturing is not regarded as important. That is what is worrying. Processes are not necessarily easy to replicate in new places.
If we have a point of agreement it is this - the internal corporate structure is paramount, more important than cheap labour shopping, more important than geographic proximity. Having tight control of production processes is key to everything here.
We have very definite examples of production processes being transferred with great success. VW-Škoda is the top story here - notice the Cz partner. If Kästle/Sporten works out half as well as that did, everyone should be beyond happy.
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