Parts Paralysis Daily Digest, March 23
Our daily run-down of delays, shut-downs, shortages, and postponements.
- Toyota will delay the introduction of the wagon version of the Prius hybrid in Japan. A launch event was planned for late April. This event is cancelled; a new date has not been set. The Nikkei [sub].
- Toyota will also delay the minivan version of the Prius, Reuters adds.
- Ford is keeping a wary eye on Japan from its Thai facility. “So far, we haven’t been affected, production-wise…we identified some suppliers who have been impacted, but so far we have been able to keep producing,” said President of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa Joe Hinrichs. The company suspended overtime, and is closely monitoring developments in Japan. Ford will debut its new Ford Ranger pick-up truck for the Southeast Asian market at the Bangkok International Motor Show, March 25-April 4. The Nikkei [sub].
- Toyota and Honda car ventures in southern China have enough parts inventory to sustain normal production until the middle of next month, Zeng Qinghong, president of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co (GAC) said today. Just to be on the safe side, GAC and its Japanese partners is thinking about getting help from Japanese suppliers in other markets. Reuters.
- Nissan’s Ghosn said about 40 component suppliers in Japan have difficulties, complicating Nissan’s attempts to restart production. Electronic components, plastics and rubber are in short supply. This will affect automakers in Japan and around the world. “This is serious and it’s still difficult to evaluate,” Ghosn said. Bloomberg.
- Nissan tries to repair the severely damaged Iwaki plant in Fukushima Prefecture. A team from Nissan’s Tochigi factory is en-route. “But with aftershocks still rocking the area surrounding the Iwaki plant, the full restoration of water supply and other infrastructure is expected to take time.” The Nikkei [sub].
- Nissan has dispatched support personnel groups to leading parts manufacturers that have suffered serious damage. The Nikkei [sub].
- Toyota has sent some 60 people from Aichi to Miyagi. They arrived with goods and supplies and will help with inspections at the Miyagi plant. The Nikkei [sub].
- Honda affiliate Keihin has many of its key production sites in Miyagi. With support from Honda, trial runs start at affected sites. The Nikkei [sub].
- Subaru (and all of Fuji Heavy) is out of email for three hours a day, every day. Fuji Heavy is the only Japanese automaker to have its e-mail interrupted. Its global headquarters is in a section of Tokyo unaffected by the blackouts. The e-mail server however is located in the city of Omiya, Saitama prefecture. They get the power turned off each day. And the mail goes nowhere. Automotive News [sub]
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Some get to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Others can't yet. Such destruction.
About the loss of e-mail at Fuji Heavy: the server that runs e-mail for the entire country's staff isn't on a UPS and generator with more than 3 hours of runtime? Also, one would hope that the equipment and communications lines that connect the server to the rest of the company are also on power backup equipment. I suppose you could also look at it from the other perspective: how much e-mail does the average office worker send that absolutely can't wait three hours for a response? If I need to hear from someone within three hours, I'm following up an e-mail message with a phone call, IM, SMS, whatever. (Of course, the blackouts may affect those services too, but that's another discussion). Of course, AN isn't an IT publication, so I'm sure there are many more details to this story.