Toyota to make ‘intentional pause’ from Apr. to Jun.

Toyota announced that it will have an “intentional pause” following the looming effects of parts shortage to its production plans.

The hiatus, the Japanese automotive manufacturer said, will be from April to June 2022.

In a statement, Toyota said that the lack of parts (attributed to the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic) led the company to make repeated last-minute adjustments to production plans that “imposed considerable burdens on production sites including those of suppliers.”

The company explained that the pause is aimed to establish a healthy workplace environment that places “the highest priority on safety and quality, rather than exceeding the capacities of facilities, pushing people to their limits, and making do through overtime work.”

“We will then inform our suppliers of plans that incorporate production reduction risks and other factors up to three months in advance, review production plans on a monthly and three-monthly basis, and share these plans with our suppliers,” the vehicle producer noted.

Toyota revealed that its global production plan for April including overseas production is approximately 750,000 units (250,000 units in Japan and 500,000 units overseas).

“Although the number of units we provided to our suppliers at the beginning of the year includes recovery from previous production cutbacks, due to the impact of semiconductor shortages, we have adjusted our production plan by approximately 150,000 units globally. The global production plan average from April through June is around 800,000 units,” Toyota mentioned.

The company also admitted that the same underlying factors made it difficult to look several months ahead — with a possibility that the production plan may be lower.

“However, we will continue to closely examine the situation of parts supply and suppliers, and make every effort to reduce the scope of sudden production cuts as much as possible, to normalize the production plan, and to reduce the burden on suppliers,” the world’s biggest automaker said.

“We would also like to extend our sincere apologies once again to those customers who have been waiting for vehicles to be delivered. By normalizing the production environment, we hope to deliver vehicles with high quality as many as possible. We continue to make every effort with concerned parties such as production, procurement, and sales.”

Photos from Toyota

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