Yes sir. Spot on.
Correct. This is their livelihood. So they maintain their equipment. As machines wear, quality falls off and revenue suffers. So there's a point at which, the cost to maintain or replace equipment is justified.
I think the part of this conversation that's going unsaid is, in the US when your quality fades, your name is tarnished, and that could begin your company's death spiral (SK?). In China, or Taiwan, they produce tools to get a contract with a western distributor. First articles are tested and inspected. Either intentionally or unintentionally, quality starts to slip, returns increase eventually. Could be wear, could be worker fatigue, could be intentional process/material substitution. The distributor, annoyed with their supplier, simply finds a new supplier and creates a new brand. The original supplier, anonymous to the end user, can re-tool and try again, no harm no foul. And the cycle continues. There's always another greedy distributor looking to cash in on asian made goods.
