Really? The message I got from American Factory was that there are stark cultural divides between Chinese and American manufacturing. It's been a while since I saw it, but they made a point to emphasize some of the poor financial decisions the Chinese bosses made during refurbishing (I think an overly expensive stage was built).
Yes, there's no one thing in that documentary but a collection of things which you could chalk up to "differing cultures":
* The scene where the plant operators from China dump a bunch of waste improperly
* The scene where the plant owner is worried about unionization (though the film contrasts this with the presence of unions in their Chinese plant)
* The scene where the plant operators are complaining that the american workers output with higher defect rate and lower speed
* The scene where the operators are complaining about the strict safety regulations and the fact that Americans like to take time off on weekends
That the plant owner spent tens of thousands of dollars to redo the factory layout is just one example, but it's not more than a few minutes of airtime compared to the quality control and union stories. If these can be put under the umbrella of "cultural differences" then I agree with your assessment.
