Toyota says that all fourteen of its plants that were temporarily forced into a pause overnight have been kicked back into gear after what it describes as a system malfunction.
The company, dismissing speculation that it had been impacted by a cyber security incident, says that a “malfunction in the production order system” forced Toyota to suspend 28 production lines at all of its 14 plants in Japan.
Those plants are responsible for producing up to one-third of Toyota’s global exports, according to a report from Reuters, so it goes without saying that getting them back online quickly was imperative.
Toyota says that production is back online at 25 production lines in 12 of its 14 production plants, and expects the Toyota Kyushi Miyata and Daihatsu Kyoto plant to kick back into gear in the next few hours.
Toyota says that it does not suspect a cyber attack caused the issue with its ordering system, which prevented Toyota from tracking and topping up inventories for key components.
“We will continue to investigate the cause,” said Toyota in a statement, adding that “we would like to apologise once again to our customers, suppliers and related parties for any inconvenience caused by the suspension of operations.”
According to Reuters, Toyota has been averaging production rates of 13,500 vehicles per day in the first half of 2023, as it hopes to cut down lengthy wait lists for its most popular vehicles around the globe.
Outputs at Toyota’s 14 factories in Japan were 29% higher in the first six months of 2023, marking its first production rate increase in the past 24 months as the company, like almost every other manufacturer, struggled to grapple with component shortages.
