Following what seemed announcement after announcement that only extended production reduction or stoppages, Toyota appears to have finally come up with a timeline to restore the world’s top automaker to full production capacity.
Toyota says that it has undergone an exhaustively in-depth analysis of its entire supply network, from the lowest tiers to its tier one suppliers, and of course its own production facilities as well. The end result is a conclusion that the automaker will be able to begin moving towards pre-catastrophe production levels as early as July in Japan, and August in North America.
While it may appear at first glance that Toyota may be playing favorites by restoring operations in Japan first, which would almost seem counter-intuitive due to the fact that it incurred the damage there, the automaker explains that the delay is due to the approximately one-month shipping period to get the parts from Japan to its production facilities in North America.
President and CEO of the automaker, Akio Toyoda, offered his sincere apology to all customers who have been, or will be unable to purchase a Toyota product according to plans as a result of the delays. The company leader also added, “Our entire company is committed to solving the problems before us,” Toyoda said, “so that we can achieve production recovery even one day sooner.”
As it stands now, Toyota says there are approximately 150 parts that are holding back new-vehicle production, with the majority being electronic, rubber or paint related. Toyota says that in the interim it is acquiring as many parts as possible from alternate suppliers as its core suppliers work to return to production.
In the interim, Toyota has put its plants on significantly reduced production schedules worldwide as the automaker attempts to conserve parts due to continuing shortages.
