During the night, Toyota confirmed that it will halt production at all its factories in Japan due to a “system failure” at Kojima Industries, a plastic components supplier.
A representative from Kojima informed Nikkei, “It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyber attack. We are still confirming the damage and rushing to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota’s production system as soon as possible.”
The shutdown at Toyota affects 28 lines in 14 plants in Japan and commences on March 1, 2022. It is unclear when Toyota, Daihatsu, and Hino will resume production.
The newspaper estimates that Toyota will lose the production of 13,000 vehicles every day during a complete shutdown. It is yet to be determined if the issues at Kojima will impact Toyota’s factories outside Japan.
Most of the company’s popular products, including the Corolla and RAV4, are manufactured in Japan. However, the best-selling Hilux is produced in Thailand.
Kojima states that it is working with Toyota and other companies to “determine the cause” of the attack and assist in bringing its systems back online.
It is unclear if the cyber attack on Kojima is related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but over the weekend, Japan supported tougher sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s country.
This included the blocking of several major Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which facilitates international money transfers between financial institutions.
The EU, the US, and other nations also took measures to prevent the Russian central bank from using its estimated $500 billion foreign reserve war chest to support the ruble.
Like other car manufacturers, Toyota has halted production at various points throughout 2021 due to the global semiconductor shortage.
As part of Toyota’s tightly integrated just-in-time system, suppliers deliver components to the car manufacturer in precise quantities and at specific times. This highly efficient setup minimizes storage space requirements in the automaker’s factories but means that problems from one source often have a significant domino effect.
Kojima Industries exclusively supplies plastic parts to Toyota and is based in Toyota City, on the outskirts of Nagoya.
