Toyota Mississippi To Resume Production After Three Week Shutdown

BLUE SPRINGS, MISS. (WCBI) – A three-week production shutdown at Toyota Mississippi will soon be coming to an end.

On a regular workday, the track on the west side of the Blue Springs plant would be busy, as Corollas are test-driven. But for the past three weeks, there has been no activity on the track.

Toyota announced a temporary production shutdown at its plants in North America.  The shutdown is in its third week at the Blue Springs plant.  Supply chain issues and a microchip shortage are being blamed.

“So basically the chip shortage has occurred during the pandemic, due to pandemic impacting employers in various regions throughout the world and in those regions now, people are quarantined, and unable to come to work, therefore they cannot produce the chips we need to put into our vehicles,” said Emily Lauder, vice president of administration.

The chips come from countries such as China, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and help drive a car’s computer, safety systems and other features.

Corollas will start coming off the assembly line Monday morning.  Management is hopeful that, going forward, supply chain issues are resolved so another production shutdown is not necessary.

Toyota Mississippi won’t be at full production immediately.

“”When we start back on Monday, we will ramp up slowly next week to get our team members acclimated back to the physical condition it takes to build our vehicles, so we will do extra stretching, things like that to make sure our team members start back up safely,” Lauder said.

Nearly 2,000 team members work at the Blue Springs plant.

Team members at the Blue Springs plant can make 170,000 Corollas each year.