Quoted from PinMonk:Your hypothetical is pointless because much of the Stern machine parts are ALREADY being manufactured in China and just shipped here to be assembled in the cabinet and on the playfield.
He's not talking about parts. He's talking about labour. Stern's labour expense per machine is a significant cost compared to the relatively cheap Chinese parts used in each machine. Labour costs are why many manufacturing jobs have left the English (and other) speaking world over the last decade and gone to Asia. Would assembly of the entire machine in China and manufacturing of every component in China plus shipping costs produce a cheaper machine than the current way of doing it? If it did, would the top brass of Stern want to live in China (Gary, the designers, the coders, Zach, Jodie, Patrick ...) just to make a larger profit? I doubt it. To move the entire operation to China, Gary will need to find great pinball-loving designers and coders and pinball gurus who want to live in China. Taking them all out of Chicago, while the USA remains their greatest market and generates nice profits for Stern, and severing that link which has been built over the decades, would be a mistake.