It seems that nature’s forces do not like Toyota. The March natural disaster in Japan affected Toyota the most and now, just as it is gearing up production to make up for the lost time, a massive flood in Thailand has plagued the automaker’s three local factories forcing the company to change its plans once again.
Toyota issued the following statement: “Parts availability from Thailand is not predictable at this time and is changing with the continued severity of the flooding.”
Due to the shortage of Thai-supplied parts such as audio systems and switches, the Japanese company has decided to cut overtime this week as well as one of its Saturday shifts at its Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Canada plants, reducing production.
Toyota executive vice president Shinichi Sasaki said that the Thai floods have already reduced production capacity in Japan, and the North American operations are the next in line: “We don’t know how big the impact will be”, he acknowledged in an interview with Automotive News.
Sasaki added that while there are enough parts stock to keep factories running for some time, the company is still reevaluating its overseas supply chain. If the Thailand disruption lasts for more than a month, then it will have serious repercussions in its NA operations.
Currently, the situation is affecting plants assembling the Toyota Prius, iQ, Land Cruiser, RAV-4 and Corolla models, almost all of Lexus’ range and the Scion tC coupe.
