Toyota Says Insufficient Disk Space On Servers Forced Production Stoppage In Japan

Production was halted at all 14 domestic plants but has since been resumed.

By: Adrian Padeanu

Sep 6, 2023 at 4:50am ET

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Supply shortages are typically the main reason why an automaker stops production at a certain plant. Accidents also occur every now and then, prompting car manufacturers to temporarily halt operations. In some cases, external causes such as severe weather or cyberattacks can also put the brakes on production. However, Toyota faced a different problem at the end of last month when it had to press the pause button at all of its 14 factories in Japan.

Production was suspended at some domestic plants from the first shift of August 29 and at 28 lines in all 14 plants from the evening shift of the same day. So, what exactly happened? A day before, on August 28, regular maintenance work was performed, but it didn't go as planned. Toyota explains the data gathered in the database was deleted and organized, but the system stopped after an error occurred due to insufficient disk space.

Toyota Crown Sport, Sedan, Estate

Because the servers were running on the same system, the backup function also failed to work, meaning an automatic switchover was not performed. Toyota had no other way but to stop production across its many factories in Japan. The operations were resumed only after the data was moved to a different server with a bigger storage capacity.

Production has since been resumed after fixing the malfunction in the production order system. Toyota says that after identifying the culprit, it has taken the necessary measures to make sure it won't happen again.

With the Century SUV unveiled today, Toyota is adding yet another model to its domestic production. It’s going to be manufactured at the Tahara Plant but it won't be a high-volume vehicle since the automotive giant estimates it’ll sell only 30 units per month. That's not much of a surprise considering the ultra-luxury SUV costs the equivalent of $170,000.