NAGOYA -- Toyota Motor Corp. fired up all its assembly lines on Feb. 7 after a recent fire at an affiliated parts supplier sparked a shutdown, company officials said.
The damaging fire that occurred last Feb. 1 at the brake plant of Aisin Seiki Co. in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, brought output at almost all of Toyota's assembly plants to a halt and forced other suppliers to substantially reduce production. Operations were able to resume with the help of more than 20 companies agreeing to supply Toyota with missing brake parts called proportioning valves, which were formerly made at the burned down Aisin plant. Toyota officials said the firm will try to resume full-scale production Monday.