At my MegaCorp we have annual cost reduction targets we're supposed to meet for all our products. I'm quite certain we are not unique in this regard. Once you burn through all the "low hanging fruit" ways to reduce cost you don't really have any other choice than to reduce quality (though we call it reducing "waste" because it sounds better, as though it's "wasteful" to make a product last 15 years on average when the requirement is that it only last 10).
At my MegaCorp we have annual cost reduction targets we're supposed to meet for all our products. I'm quite certain we are not unique in this regard. Once you burn through all the "low hanging fruit" ways to reduce cost you don't really have any other choice than to reduce quality (though we call it reducing "waste" because it sounds better, as though it's "wasteful" to make a product last 15 years on average when the requirement is that it only last 10).