UMW Toyota Motor’s seat manufacturing subsidiary is now making PPE for Covid-19 frontliners

Toyota Boshoku UMW (TBU), the car seats and interior trim parts manufacturing subsidiary of UMW Toyota Motor, has manufactured and delivered more than 10,000 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Ministry of Health.

Previously known as Toyota Seat Industries Malaysia (TSIM), TBU’s plant in Shah Alam manufactures seats for all locally-assembled Toyota cars in Malaysia, including the Vios, Yaris, Hilux, Fortuner, and Innova.

Following the Movement Control Order, TBU has since scaled down its operations but at that time, also adjusted its production line to now produce simple items like tudungs, protective gowns and boot covers.

The facilities include automatic layout cutting machines and industrial sewing machines, with 75 workers who are skilled at sewing the seat covers. Templates were made from sample units of Boot Covers, Tudungs and Gowns and uploaded to the Automatic Layout Cutting Machine. The final design is approved by the Health Ministry.

TBU expects to be able to produce up to 1,500 pieces daily and has delivered 10,000 pieces in the first batch to the Health Ministry today. The finished goods were delivered to the Ministry of Health by Mohd Shamsor, UMW Toyota Motor’s Director of Marketing.