LEXINGTON, KY - While one of the two local Toyota Motor Manufacturing production lines has been shutdown for the week as a result of the massive Toyota recall, the Georgetown plant remains busy as workers on Line 2 continue producing Camry, Camry Hybrid and Venzas. Line 1 employees are being kept busy working elsewhere in the plant.
"We give the options to our team membersÖ that is come to work, we'll do training, we'll do process improvement, we'll find plenty of things for you to do, or if you want to opt to stay home and use a vacation day to get paid you can do that or you can stay home without pay," said Rick Hesterberg, spokesman for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America.
Hesterberg said as of Monday, the majority of affected Line 1 workers who produce the non-hybrid Camry and Avalon reported to work, as was expected. The same options were given to employees during the summer of 2009 as the downturn in the economy led to a slowdown in production for Toyota and other major carmakers.
While the decision on how to make the best use of downtime is left to individual teams, Hesterberg said most opt for required annual training, line maintenance or working to improve the line.
"We're always looking to improve a process, so when you're down for a whole day or a full week then you get to put all your resources into that kind of activity and not just maybe an hour after the line goes down during a regular shift. We have groups that work as quality circles that try to tackle some bigger issues or if they're going to redesign a process or implement a new piece of equipment to the process," he said.
"These quality circles will stay and work maybe an hour after shift and it may take a few weeks to get that accomplished, but when you have downtime such as we (do) on Line 1 (this) week, then that gives those quality circles and individuals opportunities to concentrate on that for the entire time."
Figures for how many reported as usual weren't available Monday and may have been skewed as the weather forced schools to be closed or delayed. And Monday is a commonly requested day off for three day weekends, according to Hesterberg.
Line 2 in Georgetown is still operational as the accelerator pedals in cars assembled on that line come from a different supplier than those that are subject to the recall. While the Venzas, which share much of the same DNA as the Camry, and Camry Hybrids that rolled off Line 2 are not subject to the stoppage in sales, sales of all regular Camrys have been halted regardless of which line assembled.
"As soon as we made this recall announcement we quit shipping (regular Camry and Avalon) to dealerships," he said. "Those that are still here, those that are still staged at the plant we'll take care of."