Toyota trims production at Indiana plant

http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/AUTO01/806190448/1148

PRINCETON, Ind. -- Toyota Motor Corp. says it will slow production of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles at its Princeton, Ind., plant due to a decline in demand for the vehicles.
Toyota plans to stop production of its Tundra pickup trucks and Sequoia SUVs for six days by the end of August at the plant about 20 miles north of Evansville, Ind.
Plant spokeswoman Kelly Dillon says the "nonproduction days" are an effort to avoid layoffs. Workers will be asked to take vacation days or a day off without pay when production is halted. Those who come to work on those days will be given other tasks.
Toyota recently told 200 temporary workers at its truck plant in Texas they will be laid off this summer.

This sucks. As much as I'm glad the market is shifting to more efficient vehicles obviously some people get hurt in the process. The workers. I feel for them. They're just doing their job. I wonder if Toyota can transplant them to another factory.

Toyota "could" transplant full-time Associates. But part-time is simply to handle overflow and there are no benefits/protections for part-time. Since there's a glut of trucks, Indiana's just triming the overflow staff.

I'm surprised I haven't heard more about the Texas plant. If gas prices stay at this level, they'll have to retool one of these plants to produce something else, and consolidate Tundra, Sequoia, and Tacoma at a single plant.

Toyota "could" transplant full-time Associates. But part-time is simply to handle overflow and there are no benefits/protections for part-time. Since there's a glut of trucks, Indiana's just triming the overflow staff.

I'm surprised I haven't heard more about the Texas plant. If gas prices stay at this level, they'll have to retool one of these plants to produce something else, and consolidate Tundra, Sequoia, and Tacoma at a single plant.

Here is the news about the Texas plant.
Just like their U.S.-owned counterparts, Toyota’s trucks are not selling like they used to... Cuts in production will not be as deep as the U.S. carmakers, however, since Toyota isn’t as reliant on the cargo-haulers for sales volume.

A 14-day idle of the Tundra plant in San Antonio, Texas is expected to set right inventories of the full-size pickup, while a six-day shutdown of the Tundra and Sequoia SUV plant in Princeton, Indiana will help as well. More days may be cut from the Princeton plant’s schedule as need arises, reports Automotive News. In addition to the idling, Toyota also plans to decrease the rate of production at its plants to help reduce overstock...Source: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/industry/toyota-cutting-truck-production-to-match-sales/

Toyota runs flexible manufacturing lines, so it should be relatively easy to shift production of cars into either of these plants. See the earlier thread "Toyota replacing pickups and SUVs with Camrys" (http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252857)

efficiency down to the nth dregree
toyota can shift production to cars with more relative ease than its counterpart competitiors

=D hopefully now with attention shifting from trucks
car research funds will grow and we will see some interesting new models for cars

^.^/ woot