Global Chip Shortage Finally Catches Up to Toyota
Toyota has done a better job than most manufacturers at weathering the global semiconductor chip shortage, but no one is immune to the effects. Toyota will only produce around 540,000 vehicles through the month of September, down from the expected 900,000.
Until August, Toyota had been able to keep all of its plants running smoothly and at full capacity, or near it, while other automakers struggled to cope with the chip shortage. According to Automotive News, Toyota has a database system that “stores information about thousands of parts stored at 650,000 supplier sites, helping the automaker bypass bottlenecks when one supplier gets knocked out of commission.”
Production Continues: Take a look at the Toyota Tundra
It’s a system it developed after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011, which had convinced the automaker to move away from the popular “just in time” supply-chain approach in favor of one that could deal with sudden, unforeseen shortages.
The system did well to keep Toyota ahead of the curve for most of the pandemic and global chip shortage, but while it’s able to cope with one or even a handful of suppliers taking a hit, there’s only so much any system can do when many suppliers are affected.
Just one of the automaker’s North American plants is continuing at full steam in September — the one building the next-generation 2022 Toyota Tundra. The San Antonio-based facility is also responsible for building the Tacoma midsize pickup truck.
According to Toyota, that has little to do with demand for the Tundra and more so with finishing the production run for the current model. “In order to meet our production timeline and schedule for the new Tundra, we have to finish up current model production by a certain timeline,” a Toyota spokesperson told San Antonio Express.
Toyota also said it did not expect the production adjustments to affect employment. But for now, it’s unclear whether production will get back to normal in October or remain at a reduced level.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.