are putting a new spotlight on the tight production supply chains at Japanese companies, particularly the operations at Toyota Motor Corp. The car maker shut 26 assembly lines nationwide this week due to production halts by a supplier, showing the company’s lean manufacturing system remains vulnerable to disasters, the WSJ’s Yoko Kubota reports. Other auto makers have shuttered operations in the wake of the southern Japan devastation, but Honda MotorCo. kept other plants in the country running and Nissan Motor Co. resumed operations in the earthquake zone on Monday. This is the second time in three months Toyota has had to stop production in its plants throughout Japan after supplier troubles, and industry experts say this shutdown may last two weeks or longer and could delay vehicle deliveries. Toyota says it decided after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that it would focus on “how quickly we could recover” from disasters, an effort that will certainly come under new scrutiny as the company gets its assembly lines moving again.

Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/todays-top-supply-chain-and-logistics-news-from-wsj-1461061171