The ripples from the Japan tsunami are far reaching
 

Bit of an off topic thread but thought I would mention how the Japanese current situation is effecting me and indeed a lot of people from around the globe.

I work for Toyota here in Australia. We make the Camry (which is a global car) and a model called Aurion. Both of them are sold here and also exported to our major market which is the middle east. The business has been pretty good and even though we have been winding down towards the end of the current model (new model was due out in September) the orders have been pretty strong, both locally and export. Then the the Tsunami happened....... Now before I go on let me make it clear that this is not a whinging post. People in Japan have it far worse than me but I just thought I would share what is happening in my life.

Anyway most of our prats we use in production are sourced locally from Aussie suppliers. Still there are few parts that we get from Japan which we are running out of stock. Just this week we were informed that Toyota Australia will not be able to produce cars at the forecast production level due to key part shortages. The Toyota and the Toyota owned plants in Japan that make the parts for us have all survived the earthquake and the tsunami pretty well but the problem is with their suppliers. Some of the factories have been severely damaged and some of them aren't even there anymore. Some have also lost numerous workers which is very sad.

Toyota being Toyota are doing their best to minimize the disruption. They are looking for other possible suppliers (around the world) and even going to the extent of helping financially to rebuild some of the companies that supply them with parts. The parts they have sourced from elsewhere are being put through ADR tests (Australian Design Rules) but even that will take some time before it is all done. So far they have predicted that the earliest that things will go back to normal is in November-December. Still there are no guarantees on that.

Anyway Toyota Australia have little they can do in the mean while. The best they could do is to offer us 20 hours of work a week/per shift (two shifts) and not all of that will be production. Lot of it will be training, quality circle activities, light maintenance (like painting and cleaning),..... . What they have done is broken up the 20 hours in four days. Mon-Thu is 5 hours a day and Friday is off. So what that means is that 20 hours a week is going to be a maximum we can work and there is a total ban on overtime (which is probably fair enough). The saving grace here is that Toyota Australia will also pay us 50% of the stand-down time as well. So all in all we will get 75% of our regular wage but also we have an option of topping up to 100% with the use of our annual/long service leave. It will make things not too bad for people that have accrued leave but I have no idea how some of the people with no accrued leave will do.

Other problem is that a lot of people have been counting on the overtime that was going to come with the new model. Every new model brings a lot of overtime at least for the first couple of years of the production cycle. Lots of people have been counting on this and made purchases based on that. Some have bought new homes, investment properties and cars based on the money they thought they were going to earn. Have no idea how they will go now.

For me things should be OK. I have some leave that should be able to take me through till the end of the year (if things don't get worse than they are now). My base wage will cover my mortgage (I am going to continue to put a little bit extra on that for as long as I can) and general bills. The only victim for now will be my hobby. I am not pulling the pin on it but further spending on RC will not happen till things pick up at work. Also I have plans for selling a few models that I haven't used in more than a year and also need to do a major clean out of the garage anyway. There is too much of RC gear that hasn't been used in ages or in some cases at all. I was going to do a clean out soon but now I will have to get into it a bit quicker.

I had a Corolla on order as a company car. It arrived here from Japan and I was about to pick it up from Company Fleet but then I was informed that particular car will go to a paying customer because they couldn't guarnatee them a delivery time this year on the one they paid deposit for. I was looking forward to the Corolla but oh well. Anyway they ended giving me a Hybrid Camry instead. It is top of the range with all the trimmings and for the same low price I would have paid for the Corolla. Can't complain there. It's a bit slow but the fuel economy is great. I am averaging 5.7l/100km or 1.5 gallons/62miles (sorry but I can't be bothered doing the conversion properly). I love the car and so does my dog. So much so that he decided to start chewing on the rear leather seat:slap:. That will cost me when I take the car back. Oh well.....

Well thats about it for now I guess. I just thought I would share and see if anyone else that works for Toyota or related company has also been effected. Japan wore the brunt of the tsunami but now the ripples in the pond are spreading and having an impact elsewhere around the world. Still I consider my self lucky to be alive and have a roof over my head which lot of the poor Japanese people don't have. Things will get better. Its just the matter of grinding through the worst of it. Thanks for reading and feel free to post your thoughts.

C/Ns?

I can only hope things pick up for ya Big-Block. I was outa work too for a while. Even when I found work it wasnt full time, but right now it is. I'm glad things will be ok for ya. I saw too many people count on overtime during the boom and when it all came crashing down and the recession hit, a lot of people were hurt. I've learned to only spend what you have.

Exactly right man. Too many people take their overtime earnings into account when they budget their lives. When the overtime stops their lives grind to a halt as well. Luckily for me I was only using my OT earnings for RC. LOL


Today I was speaking to my boss. He actually painted a bigger picture for me today. We have many local companies that make parts for us and even they are in the same trouble as us. In my factory we have around 4000 employees. Between our suppliers there could be as many as five times that people that are in the same boat as us. Thats close to 25000 people that their jobs hang in the balance. Scary thought considering that job market isn't doing all that well at the moment. I had a bit of a look around today and there isn't much.

Even American automakers are feeling it. Ford shut down the Mustang line. Some of the paint colors across their lineup they can't do because some of the tints and pigments come from Japan.

(rant) Since I fix cars for a living I am sorta glad to hear they have to pitch some of the colors. They have too many for pete's sake. Thousands of colors, and I have to match all of them using my trained eye and alot of guessing. I have about 10k color chips in packets hanging on the wall in my mixing room. It is just crazy, who cares what color your hybrid prius is. There are thousands of shades of white, why can't there be 1, white is white people (end rant)

Sucks to hear that Toyota is having issues... And they just got back in the saddle from all of those run-away cars...

Best of luck to all of those who are having issues due to the Tsunami. I feel your pain, the Democrats are doing the same thing to small business in America, so I do not feel left out. I would love to feel left out.

I used to work in the our mix room at work although I have no idea why they called it that. We never mixed any paints and they all arrived as they were used. ????? Anyway at times we would have a color change and that meant I had to flush out the whole system to make sure there was no left over paint in the pipes that were going to the spray booths. The process was very time involving and messy. One time I went home covered from head to toe in blue. I looked like a slaughtered a smurf.:lol: Anyway what used to have me scratching my head is the new color batch of paint would arrive and look exactly like the one it was replacing. Even after painting there would be almost no way for a human eye to tell them apart. I have no idea why they would make such minuscule changes.