Japanese car manufacturers are looking to restart production after their operations were disrupted by the deadly earthquake and tsunami.
Toyota Motors says it will announce plans to restart production on Tuesday. Production at Honda Motors and Mazda is scheduled to start later this week.
This comes after Nissan Motors resumed work at six of its factories on Monday.
However, analysts said that production will depend on the supply of parts.
They said the main task will be getting the supply chain to work at full capacity, without which company production numbers could be far less than before.
“A start in production does not automatically mean that they have started to work at full capacity,” said Vivek Vaidya of Frost & Sullivan.
“They could be working at sub-optimal capacity” he added.
Assembling a car requires thousands of parts to be put together. These are provided by different suppliers.
“Each supplier has to be able to reach the levels before the devastation to reach the full production plan,” said Mr Vaidya.
The reason behind a shortfall of parts is down to each company’s efficiency plans.
Most of the parts are shipped to the manufacturers a short time ahead of the assembly line requirements, analysts said.
This means that most car factories have relatively low inventories, which can create shortages in supply.
Balancing act
As different vendors get back on track at a different pace, the supply of parts will also be inconsistent in the short to medium term, analysts said.
There might be an excessive supply of parts for one model of the car, while the other models might face a shortage.
According to analysts this will mean the manufacturers will have to make some tough choices.
“They will have to get the product mix correct,” said Mr Vaidya.
“Getting that right will be a challenge,” he added.
