Purely anecdotal, but as someone in the space I'd attribute those improvements largely to better manufacturing technology rather than better management. Servos,

Purely anecdotal, but as someone in the space I'd attribute those improvements largely to better manufacturing technology rather than better management. Servos, feedback control, reliability testing, etc. have improved a lot since the 90s. But American management still tends to be rather Taylorist. With electronic components being more popular you're seeing quality issues crop back up from T1/T2 suppliers because the focus is on technology instead of process. But the AOI/ICT I've seen in the automotive space are fairly crude compared to the number of potential failures you can have with electronic components. Playing whack-a-mole doesn't work. You need people close to the process who care enough to notice when something is not quite right, and are empowered to do something about it. Kaizen is to manufacturing what Agile/Scrum is to software development. As soon as management hears "improved efficiency" they tend to focus on the dollar signs rather than the message about people and process.