The gigantic computer failure that paralyzed all of Toyota’s factories in Japan for one day last week was due to insufficient data storage capacity, the world’s largest automaker said on Wednesday. “The system malfunction was caused by the unavailability of some of the multiple servers that handle parts orders,” Toyota said in a statement.
During a maintenance operation, data deletion and sorting operations were performed that had accumulated, and “an error occurred due to lack of storage space on the hard disk, which caused the system to shut down,” the company continued. band. “As these servers were running on the same system, a similar failure occurred on the standby device,” making it impossible to continue production.
“The system was restored by transferring the data to a higher capacity server.”
Toyota claims to have taken other “countermeasures” and will review its maintenance procedures to prevent a similar incident from happening again. The group reaffirmed again on Wednesday that, therefore, it was not a cyberattack, this time with greater certainty.
One of the providers victim of a cyberattack last year
Toyota operates 14 factories in Japan, with a total of 28 production lines. Its many factories abroad were not affected by the blackout. Last year, the group was also forced to suspend all production in Japan for one day due to a cyberattack that affected one of its suppliers, Kojima Industries.
After being hit mainly in 2022 by disruptions in global supply chains and semiconductor shortages, Toyota’s production has picked up sharply since the beginning of this year. Its global production exceeded 5.6 million vehicles in the first six months of 2023, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year and a new semi-annual record for the group, according to figures published at the end of July. The group (which also includes its Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands) expects to sell 11.38 million vehicles worldwide in its current fiscal year 2023/24, which would mark a new record and an increase of 7.8% year-on-year. .
Source: BFM TV
