Toyota has just recorded 1,000,000 Priuses on the road.But what are the chances of the next million coming on stream quickly. They just took a big hit.

It  looks like Toyota  could get badly caught by the very philosophy it helped made popular.Toyota's supply chain is known as "just-in-time" . This  Just in Time process helped the company save billions of dollars in capital by not having to store inventory. Just in Time still worked until March 11,2008 when Japan's great quake hit.And unfortunately for this concept and for Toyota the  global supply chain for auto manufacturing relied on critical parts built in factories in Japan. While most of these facotries weren't directly impacted by the Quake, the rolling black outs from the nuclear power failure have affected them.

Toyota was founded in 1933 and is based  in Toyota City, Japan. It has more than 300,000 employees The company has a market capitalization of $126 billion with an enterprise value of $238 billion.In 2008, it was the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, a title previously held by General Motors for 70 years
.

 While the majority of these factories were not affected by the quake or tsunami directly, they have been affected by rolling black outs, or a lack of parts from vendors who provide them with sub-assemblies that are sent to the factory. And this is when the weakness in the Just in Time approach becomes apparent.

In the US, Toyota is canceling overtime and cutting back on shifts,and the company share price has fallen significantly since February.

For other stories about all aspects of climate change , check out Celsias

1 million Priuses

Rep Ed Markey tells the GOP Off

Polar bears Won't get Hunted in Russia This Year- Thanks Vladimir