Toyota’s Japan Production Halts as Assembly Plant System Failure Occurs
Due to a problem with its manufacturing system, Toyota Motor Corp. announced that activities at all of its assembly plants in Japan would cease as of Tuesday afternoon.
This is likely to halt domestic production for the top carmaker in the world. According to a representative for Toyota, the issue was being investigated and was “likely not due to a cyberattack” The failure prevented them from placing orders for parts, the spokeswoman continued. From Tuesday morning, Toyota shut down 12 of its plants; only two remained operational.
The representative stated that all 14 will be removed from Tuesday’s second shift, although she did not specify how much output would be lost. According to calculations by Reuters, the 14 facilities collectively produce around a third of Toyota’s overall output. By sales, Toyota is the biggest automaker in the world.
The suspension occurs just as Toyota’s Japanese manufacturing was beginning to recover from a series of output reduction plans that it had attributed to a lack of semiconductors. The first increase of this kind in two years saw a 29% boost in production in Japan in the first half of the year.
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Cyberattack and Production Disruption
According to a Reuters assessment of working days and excluding holidays, daily output in Japan for Toyota brands, excluding Daihatsu and Hino, averaged approximately 13,500 vehicles in the first half. When one of Toyota’s suppliers was the target of a cyberattack last year, business operations came to a complete standstill.
The output loss due to that one-day interruption was around 13,000 automobiles. The manufacturer is a pioneer in just-in-time inventory management, which lowers costs but also implies that production might be jeopardized by a snag in the logistical chain.
Although the root of the issue was unclear, corporate Japan has been on high alert lately after a number of businesses and government institutions reported receiving a deluge of unwanted phone calls.
According to the authorities, the calls were probably made from China and had to do with Japan’s spilling of radioactive water into the Pacific from the Fukushima nuclear power facility. In the opening hours of Tokyo trading, Toyota shares were down 0.3% at 2,429 yen.
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Source: Reuters