It's nowhere near that easy.
Then you're going to have to enlighten me because I don't see how it isn't that easy. Yes there are many parts and yes it's taking people time, but that's why you get more manufacturing companies to help so that you at least come close to meeting demand. In the mean time the stretch out time between waves so that you can make more copies of each one.
First, you probably shouldn't say snippy things like "please enlighten me", then two posts later tell people not to talk down to you.
The first one "enlighten me" That was genuine.
I work in manufacturing in a field directly related to electronics. I also run my own business on the side. So I consider myself to know a thing or 2 about this stuff. So when I was so confidently told that it isn't near that easy I wondered if you knew something I hadn't thought of yet so I asked you to help me understand.
The second one, yes I was genuinely irritated at that point. I have an Engineering degree, I work in manufacturing, I own my own business, I've read many books on economics principles, and I have almost all the pre-requisites to get started in the MBA program. So although I don't know everything I'm not a complete idiot.
It's not as easy to just "find a manufacturing facility" (or two). You have to find one that's set up to actually manufacture something in the same line of what you're making. Then, you have to book it in advance. Like, many months (sometimes, over a year) in advance. Depending on what you need, special equipment (or special modifications to existing equipment) may be required. And we're dealing with RFID toys - something fairly new in the world of toys. All kinds of government compliance checks are required. These deals and details are all planned out far in advance. In the cases of some characters (namely, third party characters - but even secondary characters - for example, did you know that Nintendo doesn't own the rights to license Kirby?), the contracts were probably signed long enough ago that clearly specified how many figures could be manufactured and when they could be sold. Then, even after they're manufactured, it's generally six-to-twelve weeks from factory to warehouse for Chinese goods shipped via cargo ship to US.
Nintendo could throw all this money at putting all of this together and by time the first restocks are on the shelves, folks could have moved on to something new/different/exciting. Marth first went on sold in November (and sold out almost immediately). It's half a year later and we still don't have the restocks on US shelves yet (and that's without trying to rig up additional factories).
I don't know about your philosophy, but with both the company I work for and the company I own I make sure to keep my customers happy. It's not always easy and sometimes I lose money on a specific transaction, but then they come back because they walked away happy.
Just last week I needed a specific device for one of my customers, I was told I couldn't get it because it's only sold in Europe (I'm in the US) that wasn't good enough for me and I made it clear.
When that didn't work I escalated it to the guy above the man I was working with. I then simultaneously found a second company that could produce the same thing for me. Meanwhile I designed a back up option in case neither of the first 2 worked out. The original company came back to me and said they could get me in the normal line and they would be willing to start selling that line in the US just for me. The back of the line meant 12 weeks. That was unacceptable and I made that very clear. I then started moving forward with the second company and did more work on my own design. Finally I was able to convince the first company to get it air shipped within a week. Are things sometimes difficult? Yes, but you do what you gotta do and it feels like Nintendo is doing NOTHING.
You point out that Kirby is owned by HAL??? How many people do you know that are trying and failing to find a Kirby?
Marth, you just proved my point 6 MONTHS and I was in Walmart and Best Buy today and neither had Marth (they both had Kirby)
On top of this, Nintendo is tied to retailer orders. Nintendo signed agreements (possibly a year or longer) with retailers to say "In May, we will ship you X amount of Y figure." - now, for something like the port strike, I'm sure there's language in the contract that gives them some leeway. But I doubt there's much wiggle-room for "Yeah, we'd rather make more Little Macs this month than the new ones we promised you."
Nintendo grossly underestimated demand of these figures to begin with - and that is their initial downfall. They need to do everything reasonable in their power to get things fixed as soon as possible. I don't know what that is, but I do know it's a whole lot more than just finding another factory or two.
I really doubt that at a time right now when so many people are pissed at GameStop, Walmart, Toys R Us, Target, and Best Buy that they'd have a problem if Nintendo pumped out more Marth, Villager, Shulk, Rosalina, ect and then made sure that they supply enough Amiibo for all the future waves.
Yes Nintendo grossly underestimated demand with the first go round, but obviously you and I have VERY different opinions of what is reasonable for fixing that.
Sorry I've said WAY TOO MUCH