Overnight Toyota confirmed that it would stop production at all of its plants in Japan because of a “systemic error” at Kojima Industries, a supplier of plastic components.
A representative of Kojima told Nikkei: “It is true that we have been hacked. We are still confirming the damage and we are rushing to respond, with the first priority being to resume Toyota’s production system as soon as possible.”
Toyota’s shutdown affects 28 lines at 14 plants in Japan, and begins on March 1, 2022. It’s unclear when Toyota, Daihatsu and Hino will resume production.
The newspaper estimates Toyota will lose production of 13,000 vehicles per day during the complete shutdown. There is no word yet on whether the problems at Kojima will affect Toyota plants outside of Japan.
Most of the company’s most popular products Down Under, including the Corolla and RAV4, are made in Japan. However, the best-selling Hilux is made in Thailand.
Kojima said it is working with Toyota and other companies to “determine the cause” of the attack and help bring their systems back online.
It’s not clear if the Kojima cyberattack is related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but over the weekend Japan backed the toughest sanctions yet against Vladimir Putin’s country.
This includes locking down several major Russian banks from the SWIFT system, facilitating international transfers between financial institutions.
The EU, US and other countries have also taken measures to prevent the Russian central bank from using its estimated US$500 billion ($690 billion) in foreign exchange reserves to prop up the ruble.
Like other automakers, Toyota has halted production at various times throughout 2021 due to a global shortage of semiconductors.
As part of Toyota’s tightly integrated time entry system, suppliers deliver parts to automakers in precise quantities and at specific times. This highly efficient setup minimizes storage space requirements at automakers’ plants, but means problems from one source often have a big impact.
Kojima Industries supplies plastic parts exclusively to Toyota, and is headquartered in Toyota City, a suburb of Nagoya.
