Toyota starts production at all its plants in Japan
Submitted by mark brown on April 19, 2011 - 2:01am
Only three plants were operating
The natural calamity has destroyed the infrastructure of car manufacturing process of Toyota. Only three plants were functional after the tsunami and even these plants have been producing at limited capacity since late March and early April. These three plants have been manufacturing the most popular cars such as, Prius, Lexus and Corolla.
All plants are open but under trouble
Even though all of the plants started working, Toyota informed that they are still under pressure to produce around 150 types of auto parts for these plants to produce their vehicles. The world’s no 1 car maker is in deep trouble. All their car component manufacturing plants in northeastern Japan have been destroyed by the tsunami and earthquake.
The Miyagi plant is Toyota’s newest plant in Japan. Miyagi was one of the worst hit regions by tsunami. The plant had some minor damage though and stared the production again on Monday.
"We will make top-quality cars and deliver them to many customers as early as possible. I believe this will lead to broader reconstruction efforts in Miyagi.” Toru Kuzuhara, president of Toyota subsidiary Central Motor Co. Ltd commented on the eve of reopening the plant after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. Toyota manufactures Yaris compact sedans at the Miyagi factory to sell overseas in North America.
Before starting the work on Monday, the employees of Miyagi plant observed a minute's silence for tsunami victims to offer their unified condolences. However, the workers are extremely happy to resume their work after a long gap.
Yasuhiro Tadokoro, an official at the Miyagi plant, said "Finally, we can operate our plant. I am so relieved that we can get back to work for the first time since the tsunami."
Future plans
During this temporary closing of the factories Toyota faced a production loss of 260,000 cars.
Toyota is planning to keep the production at half capacity until April 27 in all its factories at Japan. They will also stop the production from April 28 to May 9. These days are celebrated as Golden Week holidays and most of the factories normally remain closed in Japan.
Toyota will start the production again May 10 to June 3. But they are planning to keep the production capacity half. The car manufacturing giant did not disclose when they will start the production at full capacity but said they will take a decision after June 6.
