It has been weakened by increasing shipping and transportation costs, quality control issues and a surplus of available, skilled American workers.

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The need for tighter scrutiny is evident in claims reported by the New York Times about quality control issues at Westborough, Mass.

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The New Year exodus typically forces factories to rush to hire new employees, which often creates quality-control issues.

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Then there are the quality-control issues: On one occasion "a Spanish producer printed our labels on old, horrible carbon paper, " recalls Hughes.

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While investigators found several issues in quality control at the company, they did not uncover any serious problems that can be linked to recent incidents involving Dreamliners, Yasuo Ishii, director of air worthiness standards at the Japanese transport ministry, said Tuesday.

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