1997 Aisin fire

The 1997 Aisin fire was a fire which shut down one of the production facilities of the Toyota-subsidiary Aisin Seiki Co. on February 1, 1997, a Saturday. The event was notable as the factory was the main supplier of a motor part for Toyota cars. Due to the just in time stock keeping philosophy of the Toyota Production System (TPS), Toyota's car factories reportedly only kept four-hour stocks of the part.

However the event also provided an example of successful business relationships between Toyota and its suppliers, allowing the company to quickly manufacture replacement parts and limit the halt in production of its cars, so minimizing the losses from this event.

The fire started before dawn on February 1, 1997, at Aisin Seiki Co.'s Factory No. 1 in Kariya, Japan. The cause of the fire was reportedly unknown. The factory produced brake fluid proportioning valves (P-valves) which help prevent skidding by controlling the pressure on rear brakes, and are used in the braking system of all Toyota vehicles.

99% of Toyota's P-valves were made at this plant, with Nisshin Kogyo Co. producing the remaining 1%. The production of P-valves was complicated, and required specialised tools. Furthermore, different varieties of P-valves were in production.

With the factory out of production, it was estimated that Toyota would have to halt car production for weeks. The economic impact of this would have been huge for Toyota, the local economy and for Japan. It was estimated that each day Toyota production was halted would lead to a 0.1% decrease in Japan's industrial output.

Aisin, along with Toyota, set up a crisis room to deal with the problem of manufacturing new P-valves. Toyota managed to get many of its suppliers to bring in additional engineers, and work overtime shifts, to help build machines to produce P-valves, as well as increase production of the components. Some of Toyota's suppliers, and their subcontractors, were persuaded to give priority to the production of P-valves. Even a sewing machine manufacturer was persuaded to help provide valves for Toyota.

The first usable valves were delivered to Toyota on the Wednesday (February 5) following the fire, allowing production of cars to resume. While observers initially predicted that Toyota would have to halt production for weeks, the incident ultimately set Toyota's production back only five days.

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Wikipedia