https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/insufficient-disk-space-caused-2-day-shutdown-of-toyotas-japanese-factories/

Skip to main content
 

  * Biz & IT
  * Tech
  * Science
  * Policy
  * Cars
  * Gaming & Culture
  * Store
  * Forums

Subscribe
 
[                    ]
Close
 

Navigate

  * Store
  * Subscribe
  * Videos
  * Features
  * Reviews

  * RSS Feeds
  * Mobile Site

  * About Ars
  * Staff Directory
  * Contact Us

  * Advertise with Ars
  * Reprints

Filter by topic

  * Biz & IT
  * Tech
  * Science
  * Policy
  * Cars
  * Gaming & Culture
  * Store
  * Forums

Settings

Front page layout


Grid

List

Site theme

light
dark
Sign in

production order system malfunction --

Toyota's Japanese production was halted due to insufficient disk
space

"Not caused by a cyberattack."

Scharon Harding - Sep 6, 2023 8:42 pm UTC

close-up of a car's Toyota emblem
Enlarge
Getty

reader comments

101

Toyota's 14 Japanese factories all shut down for about two days last
week due to a production order system malfunction caused by a lack of
disk space, the company announced today.

According to Toyota, its Japanese factories and their 28 assembly
lines were halted due to "some multiple servers that process part
orders" becoming unavailable and causing Toyota's production order
system to malfunction on August 28.

The problem began during maintenance work on August 27. Toyota's
press release said:

    During the maintenance procedure, data that had accumulated in
    the database was deleted and organized, and an error occurred due
    to insufficient disk space, causing the system to stop. Since
    these servers were running on the same system, a similar failure
    occurred in the backup function, and a switchover could not be
    made.

A Reuters report today cited two anonymous sources "with knowledge of
the matter," who claimed that the malfunction happened while the
parts ordering system was being updated.

Advertisement

Toyota saw a third of its total production shut down until August 30.
It said it restored its production order system on August 29 after
transferring the data to a larger-capacity server.

The announcement is a blunder for the world's top-selling automaker,
which failed to ensure that mission-critical operations would be able
to function. But Toyota was also keen to affirm that the outage was
"not caused by a cyberattack."

The car vendor's cybersecurity has faced scrutiny over recent years.
Toyota shut down the same 14 Japanese factories in February 2022 due
to a supplier getting hacked. A Reuters report on August 30 suggested
that last week's outage may be more financially detrimental to Toyota
than the 2022 event since "domestic output was up 29 percent in the
first half of this year, the first such increase in two years."

Toyota was also hacked in 2021 through a US manufacturing parts
subsidiary and at least thrice more in 2019.

To prevent similar occurrences in the future, Toyota said it has
implemented "countermeasures" created through "replicating and
verifying the situation." It also said it would review its
maintenance procedures.

The carmaker apologized to "customers, suppliers, and related parties
for any inconvenience."

reader comments

101
 
Scharon Harding Scharon is Ars Technica's Senior Product Reviewer
writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer technology, including
laptops, mechanical keyboards, and monitors. She's based in Brooklyn.
Advertisement

Channel Ars Technica

- Previous story Next story -

Related Stories

Today on Ars

  * Store
  * Subscribe
  * About Us
  * RSS Feeds
  * View Mobile Site

  * Contact Us
  * Staff
  * Advertise with us
  * Reprints

Newsletter Signup

Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates
delivered to your inbox. Sign me up -

     
 

CNMN Collection
WIRED Media Group
(c) 2024 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on
any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement
(updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1
/20) and Ars Technica Addendum (effective 8/21/2018). Ars may earn
compensation on sales from links on this site. Read our affiliate
link policy.
Your California Privacy Rights | [privacyopt] Do Not Sell My Personal
Information
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed,
transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written
permission of Conde Nast.
Ad Choices