Toyota ditches signature 'just-in-time' to fight chip crunch

Automakers asking suppliers to boost inventories

20210915 Toyota Plant in Japan

Toyota has asked some of its suppliers to increase their semiconductor inventory levels from the conventional three months to five. © Kyodo

Nikkei staff writers

TOKYO -- Global automakers are increasingly shifting away from traditional practices where they only keep a limited stock of key components, with the COVID-19 pandemic and international tensions stoking shortages of technology such as chips.

Companies including Toyota Motor are looking to boost chip inventories, while others are securing their own supplies of rare metals.

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