The pause in production of the RAV4 SUV after last week’s explosion at a Toyota supplier's factory in Japan, which killed one worker, was supposed to be minor and limited to part of this past Monday, March 10th. But that ended up being an underestimation.
Any production interruption of a brand's best-selling model has consequences. They shouldn't be too serious in this case, but model delivery will be affected in several locations.
Now, Toyota has announced that production is resuming with the second work shift today, March 13th, in two assembly plants that had been shut down due to a lack of parts. The company plans to catch up on any lost production.
The pause will therefore have been three and a half days for the RAV4. Last year Toyota sold 475,193 units of the SUV in the U.S., 81,164 in Europe and 77,555 in Canada. In total, Toyota delivered 980,000 RAV4 units worldwide in 2024, a 10-percent increase compared to 2023.
The supplier responsible for the pause, Chuo Spring's Fujioka factory, said it stopped all of it production lines to inspect them after the incident. Yesterday, the company confirmed that all its lines, except the one affected, had resumed operations. In the meantime, it also specified that it had started producing parts elsewhere, parts that were normally manufactured inside the damaged facilities.
It's easy to forget, but the production chain remains very fragile, and when one of the links experiences problems, the domino effect is extraordinary. Suppliers also want to resume production as quickly as possible, lest their customers turn to a competitor.