Toyota tells U.S. plants 'prepare to shut down' - Mar. 23, 2011 I commend Toyota for taking such good care of their employees.
I didn't know how nice Toyota was to its employees. Most companies in a shutdown give you unpaid time off or forced vacation. Not full pay for community volunteer work... Cool.
A couple years ago, they stopped production of the Tundra in San Antonio due to the lack of demand. They tried to find other work for the employees, and continued to pay all employees. It is because of these types of gestures that Toyota employees take such pride in their work.
That is truly amazing. I guess when the CEO isnt paid $200 million,you can afford to care for the workers.
TV news indicates GM is also idling some plants due to parts shortages in the global supply chain. But it sounds like their idled workers are not being treated as nicely. No links yet.
There are going to be shortages in almost anything electronic for a while. Consumer, automotive, and industrial. Many semiconductor companies based in Japan are effected. If their process machines didn't get thrown out of calibration by the earthquake, and their warehouse/fab-lab didn't get physically damaged by the quake and/or flooded in the tsunami, then they have to deal with rolling power outages until the nuke reactors come back online or they import more fuel. You can't make wafers on a non-constant power flow. Even my products are experiencing delays. Manufacturers are panic buying stock from some companies. And just to be clear I am talking about semiconductors, the little bits that make up everything electronic. If it is an IC or connector that cannot be replaced with a pin compatible replacement, your product will sit on the assembly line waiting for Japan to start producing again.
On that note, I'd seen stories like asahi.com¡ÊÄ«Æü¿·Ê¹¼Ò¡Ë¡§TEPCO: Rolling power cuts to last at least a year - English See Kant re: the Kanto region. I noticed the Kanto region includes Saitama and Tochigi. Nissan and Honda have plants in Tochigi. Honda has one in Saitama.
This is a win-win situation for everyone. Employees are still getting paid, while being a PR volunteer workforce for Toyota. Kudos to Toyota.
I have received warning emails from some of my suppliers. One of the main ones I use does all of its fabrication in the U.S., but they still feel the ripples from the problems in Japan. Tom
If you are in the market for a Prius, a scion, and most lexus, in the next 6 months, I would purchase it now.
Since GM employees are union, I think they get paid whether they are working or not. Not sure, though.
Consumer and industrial electronics. We also "manufacture" software, but so far bits are still in plentiful supply. Tom
Tom, Do you think that the consumer electronics industry is going to be significantly impacted? Do you predict a shortage of consumer electronics?
A serious one is lack of silicon wafer supply. Analyst: Japanese Quake Cuts Silicon Wafer Supply - PCWorld PCB007 Japan Quake to Affect Silicon Wafer Supply, DRAM Capacity Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. : News Ken@Japan
