Toyota Japan plants to restart Wednesday after system failure

Toyota Motor will restart production at its assembly plants in Japan on Wednesday, following a recent system malfunction that halted its domestic production.

The incident halted production at the world's largest-selling automaker, disrupting the company's supply chain.

Toyota has announced its plans to resume operations across 25 production lines spanning twelve plants in its home market. The production restart will commence on Wednesday morning, with the final two plants resuming activity in the afternoon. 

The automaker is actively investigating the root cause of the system failure, which prevented Toyota from ordering necessary components for its production.

This disruption impacted approximately one-third of Toyota's global production capacity. The company's domestic production had been showing signs of recovery after facing output cuts attributed to semiconductor shortages. 

In the first half of the year, Toyota's output saw a 29% increase, marking its first such growth in two years.

Industry analysts have highlighted the challenge Toyota faces in compensating for the production lost during the system outage. Running extra shifts could be a strategy to make up for the disruption, although the automaker was already operating at full capacity.

The system failure also had ripple effects, affecting other companies within the Toyota Group. Toyota Industries, a group firm, reported partial suspension of operations at two engine plants due to the automaker's system glitch.

Toyota's reliance on just-in-time inventory management, an approach that aims to minimize costs but increases vulnerability to supply chain disruptions, became evident in this recent incident. 

While the exact cause of the malfunction remains under investigation, the situation highlighted the sensitivity of modern manufacturing processes to unexpected interruptions.

The broader context in Japan, including recent harassing phone calls reported by businesses and government offices, indicates heightened vigilance due to geopolitical factors. 

The government linked these calls to China and their connection to Japan's decision to release treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.