Back in the 80's Harley went to M.A.N., Material As Needed, also called J.I.T. Just In Time for their supply and manufacturing process. (Learned it from the Japenese) It put quality control in the hands of the people on the line - they did their own inspecting, not someone else after a days worth of production was complete. Did great things for morale and quality, basically the QC dept. at York was able to scale way back. Don't know what's happened over the years.
Anyway, I do know the new C.E.O. is looking at all avenues to stay competitive, that being said they probably can build and assemble in places more competitive than York. Maybe they will need to do that, I hope not. I do know there are agreements in place with the union that hurts and it's not all about wages. As an example they aren't building sportsters and haven't for quite awhile. Are there dealers that need sportsters, yes there are, especially Nightsters and Irons and Harley knows it. Problem is to get the people back to build those bikes they need to bring people back in order of seniority, so they may need to bring a few fork lift drivers back to get to a person that can build Nightsters and Irons. I'm sure these kind of limitations are more than a little frustrating.