Toyota Motor North America largely followed other automakers in shutting down their assembly and parts plants across the continent to better combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
But the decision on when and where to safely return to work will be made based on data and not on gut instinct or intuition, says Chris Reynolds, chief administrative officer for manufacturing and corporate resources.
"The first big factor that we look at is whether our team members can work and be healthy while working, and that tends to be very regional in nature," Reynolds told Automotive News last week. "Some of our manufacturing facilities are located in regions that have full shelter-in-place orders such as our facility in California. Others are not as restricted. But that doesn't mean that the virus is restricted."
Just as it is elsewhere in the country, it's been a tough and chaotic several weeks at the automaker's largely empty headquarters in Plano, Texas, as the Japanese automaker slowly came to grips with the coronavirus.
On March 16, Toyota told the majority of its headquarters staff to begin working from home.
Two days later, it said it would temporarily halt production at its manufacturing plants across North America, but only for two days. A day after that, the temporary plant shutdown grew from two days to two weeks, and on March 26, the shutdown lengthened one more time, and was scheduled to end April 20 — four weeks after it began.
Reynolds said the changing plans are the company's response to ever improving information, both about the virus and public health concerns, and about the feelings of Toyota employees.
"We look very, very carefully at data that tells us the level of infection in given regions, data that tells us what [federal, state and local] government has ordered. And we also do our best to sense the mood of team members," Reynolds said.
"You know, you can be healthy but you may not feel that you're in a safe place where you can venture from your home for a variety of reasons, and we're sensitive to that."
Even though he is Toyota's head of manufacturing, Reynolds won't make the decision alone to turn North American production back on. Like most things at Toyota, it will be decided by the top management team, which Reynolds says speaks daily, usually by video conference, to guide the Japanese automaker through this latest crisis. That team includes new CEO Ted Ogawa.
The key, Reynolds said, "is to be flexible to understand that what might be a great decision for our plant in British Columbia may not be such a good decision for our plant in Indiana. I wish I had a silver bullet or a crystal ball that could say it's going to be great by this date, but I don't."
