Stung Toyota cuts production deeper in N.A.

[Stijloor]

Friends.

Article from Automotive News.

Stijloor.

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STUNG TOYOTA CUTS PRODUCTION DEEPER IN N.A.

LINDSAY CHAPPELL

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS NOVEMBER 18, 2008 - 8:31 PM ET

Toyota Motor Corp. will halt production at all of its U.S. and Canadian auto plants for two days in December to reduce its robust flow of vehicles into a sagging U.S. market.

The automaker also will cut back 2009 production levels at its big multi-car factory in Georgetown, Ky., as well as at its assembly plants in Princeton, Ind., and Fremont, Calif.

The reductions will affect all North American-made models, including the Camry, Corolla, Matrix and the just-introduced Venza crossover.

The two-day work stoppage on Dec. 22 and 23 will knock about 9,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles out Toyota's inventory.

"We are just trying to adjust to the market," says Mike Goss, spokesman for the automaker's North American manufacturing operations.

Goss says that Toyota employees around North America will be paid to come into work on Dec. 22 and 23, even though the lines will be stopped.

The schedule adjustments represent the latest U.S. manufacturing correction for the high-flying Toyota this year.

Fewer cars per hour

Despite the resilience some of its models have shown to the industry's steep downturn this year, Toyota is now sharing the pain. Total U.S. sales of Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands fell 23 percent in October, leaving Japanese officials in the unfamiliar position of fretting publicly about lost profits.

The company now plans to reduce headcount at its Georgetown plant by eliminating about half of the 500 temporary workers employed there. At the same time, the automaker will slow down the line speed of one of Georgetown's two lines, which builds the Camry, Solara and Venza, starting in January.

Rather than churn out cars at the rate of one every 55 seconds, the line will slow to one every 69 seconds.

At Toyota, the tweaking of production flow by even a few seconds per minute often takes months of planning and has reverberations throughout the North American supply chain.

Toyota will also cut Sienna minivan production in Princeton by half starting in January. That plant will retain both of its shifts, but the two shifts will share in the reduced output. No employees will be laid off, Goss says.

Smaller pickups

The company also will eliminate the second shift on its Tacoma pickup line in California starting in January.
However, a smaller Tacoma plant in Tijuana, Mexico, will not be affected by the cutbacks, nor be included in the two-day December stoppage. Toyota is under an agreement with the Mexican government to build 50,000 vehicles at the plant this year and needs those two days to meet its obligation, Goss says.

The company suspended production of its Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV for three months this fall. It also scrapped a plan to build a new Highlander factory near Tupelo, Miss., opting instead to add Highlander production to Princeton, and converting the Tupelo project into a Prius car plant.

[Caster]

Ouch - we have parts on several of these cars/trucks!

The big 3 orders fell off a while ago, but until lately Toyota was our shelter from the storm!

[Stijloor]

In Reply to Parent Post by Caster

Ouch - we have parts on several of these cars/trucks!

The big 3 orders fell off a while ago, but until lately Toyota was our shelter from the storm!

They will continue, although at a somewhat slower pace. I'm glad you're a supplier to them. They are affected too obviously, but they're in much better shape and will ride out the storm...

So many American car makers have disappeared, who will survive?

Stijloor.

[Desara01]

Note Toyota employees will be paid to come into work on those two days Dec 22-23. What, my friends, do you think they will be doing? Sitting around? Or instead, maybe working on process improvements? Fine tuning 5S?

[Desara01]

Toyota understands and lives by takt time....

[Duke Okes]

In Reply to Parent Post by Desara01

Note Toyota employees will be paid to come into work on those two days Dec 22-23. What, my friends, do you think they will be doing? Sitting around? Or instead, maybe working on process improvements? Fine tuning 5S?

If they were at the Big 3 Detroit automakers they'd be playing cards in the cafeteria. And asking for government funds to help pay their salaries.

[Stijloor]

In Reply to Parent Post by Duke Okes

If they were at the Big 3 Detroit automakers they'd be playing cards in the cafeteria. And asking for government funds to help pay their salaries.

Permitted/required by a union contract?

Stijloor.

[bobdoering]

In Reply to Parent Post by Duke Okes

If they were at the Big 3 Detroit automakers they'd be playing cards in the cafeteria. And asking for government funds to help pay their salaries.

Darn American automotive companies. I am sure glad we got past all that "Buy American" ****. The economic experts say it's a global economy, and it doesn't matter if you buy American anymore. And the govenment should not be a charity...but it should allow you to break every contract you have made (bankruptcy), including bust up the unions to be competitive with the transplants.

It's all good...what are we waiting for? Feed the lawyers. They will be the true economy for the next year or so, anyway. The rest of us will nibble their crumbs. Nobody will whine about the lawyer's corporate jets.