Chronic. For anyone familiar with the automotive industry, Toyota is a model of organizational perfection. It was its engineers who popularized the concept of “just in time” around the world. Each link in the industrial chain, from the bolt producer to the engine manufacturer, is organized to produce according to demand and arrive in time at the very place where the car is assembled, according to the rhythm of a symphony orchestra where everyone plays able.
But reality is sometimes resistant to this disciplined harmony. After the natural disasters, which are expected to increase with global warming, came the health crisis which disrupted the machine, caused logistical chaos and triggered a gigantic shortage symbolized by those of electronic components.
Now, a virus of a new kind has just insinuated itself into the cogs of the machine, a computer virus. He came surreptitiously through the door of a plastic parts supplier, Kojima. A threatening message in English suddenly appeared on the screen of the company’s servers, demanding a ransom. Toyota has halted production at its 14 factories in Japan. The company promises to restart the chains as of this Wednesday, March 2, but in the meantime, nearly 13,000 vehicles have not been produced.
Mountains and borders
Immediate attention was drawn to the Ukrainian crisis and the firm position adopted by Japan vis-à-vis Russia. But cybercriminals did not wait for the war to strike around the world. Obsessed in recent months by the logistical chaos, companies must also worry about the immaterial routes of the Internet, now just as dangerous and strategic as the sea or rail routes. At each crossroads, you can come across pirates, especially when some states are blowing on the embers.
In 2005, the American journalist Thomas Friedman caused a sensation when he published his book The Earth is flat, a brief history of the XXIand century (ed. Saint-Simon, 2006). He noted the abolition of economic and political borders under the dual effect of globalization and the digital revolution. The Toyota-style “just in time” was one of the most ardent representatives of this new world. But the planet is now increasingly turning its back on this race for efficiency. After the health crisis, the return of inflation, war in Europe and the rise of the climate threat are the most obvious outward signs. The earth regains its mountains and its borders, and this is not necessarily good news.