Inside the Stern fun factory

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There’s been lots of news surrounding Stern and its factory over the last week or so, what with the announcement that the company is looking for new premises and the fact that it will be building the repro Medieval Madness machines. (Pinball News has more details.)

So what’s the existing factory actually like? Back in September Pavlov Pinball was lucky enough to take a look.

One of the first things you see is a sign proclaiming that Stern is an “error free zone” – amusingly stuck on the wall next to a sign with three errors. Still, anyone can mak an eror or three.

Then you notice that it’s busy. Damn busy. Whereas five years ago it might not exactly have been a hive of activity, now it’s buzzing. Space is at a premium, and everywhere you go you are confronted with vast storage areas full of parts, and men and women beavering away putting tables together.

You see racks filled with more playfields than you can shake a stick at…

…women wiring at bewildering dexterity….

…huge numbers of looms…

… staff populating playfields …

…decals being applied with dizzying speed and accuracy…

…completed machines running off the production line…

… lined up ready for testing.

And some lucky bugger in England is getting a Star Trek.

Thanks to Stern for the factory tour.

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