Toyota’s plant back from the brink

September 12, 2022

Toyota South Africa Motors’ Prospecton plant is back in business! It has resumed operations after production was halted due to flood damage. The announcement was made at a reopening ceremony attended by the newly elected Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, and Siboniso Duma, MEC of Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs. DANIE BOTHA attended the ceremony.

On April 11, about 300 mm of rainfall was recorded in just 24 hours in the KwaZulu-Natal coastal region. Flooding caused massive damage and, tragically, many lives were lost.

Toyota’s Durban-based Prospecton plant – where Hino commercial vehicles, the IMV range (Hilux and Fortuner), Corolla Cross and Quest, Hiace Ses’fikile, and a range of components are manufactured – was not affected, but early the next day, everything changed.

Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) president and CEO Andrew Kirby describes how the drama unfolded: “At 05:40 the water levels were being kept in check. But less than an hour later the entire 87-hectare plant was underwater, some places nearly two-metres deep,” he reveals.

The Shongweni Dam, situated 30 km inland, was overflowing. Some of the sluice gates were inadvertently forced open by the volume of water, which sent a wall of water hurtling down the Mlazi River. The water obliterated the protection barriers and flooded the plant and surrounding areas.

Teams scrambled to ensure that every Toyota staff member was accounted for, and thankfully everyone was safe.

Kirby soon sent a message to Akia Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), informing him of the situation. “His first reaction was: how can we help?” recalls Kirby.

Above: In mid-August, the Hilux production line was back up to speed. Operating at full capacity, a Hilux rolls off this line every 90 seconds.

Toyota’s best manufacturing experts from around the world were dispatched to South Africa to assist. It soon became clear that this was the most comprehensive damage to any Toyota manufacturing facility ever – even worse than the damaged caused by a tsunami that hit Toyota’s facilities in Japan in 2011.

“It seemed highly unlikely that the plant would operate in 2022. But TMC offered financial assistance amounting to tens of billions of rands. This cash flow injection got us back on track, as we implemented a massive salvage and recovery plan,” says Kirby.

So, with the best manufacturing brains assembled, a Toyota workforce fully committed to get the factory back up to speed, and with the financial backing from Japan, operation Rebuilding Better Together was set in motion.

Now, about four months after the floods, the plant is running at 85% efficiency. This is expected to exceed 90% by September and should be up to 100% in another month or three. The Toyota team has brought the facility back from the brink in an amazingly short time.

“It would actually have been easier to build a new plant from the ground up,” says Kirby. “Yet we did not compromise on the quality of the rebuild, even if that required more time.”

TSAM nevertheless recorded some staggering losses. Around 4 000 vehicles were crushed following flood damage, as part of Toyota’s quality assurance policies. At an average cost of R400 000 per vehicle that amounts to R1.6 billion. Much worse was the fact that TSAM lost the production of around 68 000 vehicles during the shutdown period.

No parts could be salvaged from the damaged vehicles either. This even included the brand-new fitted tyres. Teams of workers spent days drilling holes in new tyres that never even made it onto a road.

Toyota’s efficient just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing process was the reason behind this. Every part is coded and linked to a specific vehicle, including the tyres. Fitting a tyre that was earmarked for Hilux X on Hilux Y would cause mayhem with the intricate JIT system.

“We overcame a huge hurdle in a very short time. Now we are back, and we’re back better,” says Kirby.

High praise from government

Government officials who attended the reopening ceremony have paid tribute to the tenacity of Toyota and its people.

According to Siboniso Duma, MEC of Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs for KwaZulu-Natal, the reopening of the plant is not only good news for Toyota South Africa, but also for the economy of the province. “This also shows Toyota’s commitment to investing in the province of KZN as well as the local automotive industry,” he notes.

Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, says she will encourage her provincial colleagues to make Toyota the vehicle of choice for her government.

“On behalf of the government of KZN, the people of KZN, we wish to pay a tribute to Toyota South Africa for the enormous strides that they took in resuscitating operations here at the plant. To all the stakeholders who participated in the clean-up operations, we would really like to thank you as the government of KZN. We know that through your hard work and agility, you were able to save people’s jobs,” she says.