FACT SHEET: CHICAGO ASSEMBLY PLANT

Plant Information

• Plant name:  Chicago Assembly Plant
• Location:  Chicago
• Employment:  Hourly – 1,280; Salaried – 95
• Products:  Ford Taurus, Ford Taurus SHO, Lincoln MKS
• Year opened:  1924
• Site size in acres:  113
• Plant size in square feet:  2.7 million
• Product history:  Ford Model A, Ford Model T, Ford delivery trucks, armored cars and reconnaissance vehicles, Mercury Sedan, Ford Torino, Ford Thunderbird, Ford Granada, Mercury Cougar, Ford LTD, Mercury Marquis, Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable, Ford Five Hundred, Ford Freestyle, Mercury Montego, Ford Taurus X

Manufacturing Upgrades

• Ford Motor Company has invested $134 million into the site for upgrades including state-of-the-art equipment with controls that ensure with precise accuracy the quality of the vehicle assembly. The investment also includes installation of the new EcoBoost engine line at the assembly plant and new machinery at the Chicago Stamping Plant, which will support sheet metal changes for the vehicles.
• Key fobs provide quality control by allowing operators to confirm proper assembly before the vehicle advances to the next station. Without proper assembly verification, the vehicle will not leave the plant.
• Before the vehicle is released to the shipping yard, its onboard diagnostics system and quality tracking system are scanned to make sure no problems have been discovered throughout the assembly process. If there is a problem that has not been fixed, the release gate will not lift and the vehicle will not be allowed to leave the plant. The scanning system acts as a final safeguard before the vehicle leaves the plant.

Historic Milestones

1914:  Production begins in March; plant turns out 4,211 Model Ts
1924:  Chicago Assembly moves to 11-acre plant at 12600 Torrence Avenue, Chicago
1942:  Plant changes from civilian production to World War II production
1945:  First civilian vehicle – 1946 Mercury Sedan – rolls off the line
1946:  Ford and UAW sign contract making Ford employees, at $1.40 an hour, the highest paid auto employees
1962:  Plant begins work on 44,000-square-foot expansion
1964:  Second shift re-added; plant celebrates 50 years of production in Chicago, 40 years in the current plant
1977:  A 36,000-square-foot addition is added, bringing plant's total size to more than 2 million square feet
1985:  Production starts on Taurus and Sable after $205 million in plant renovations
1995:  Plant undergoes $285 million renovation, gets 200,000-square-foot addition to help produce new Taurus / Sable
2004:  Plant undergoes $400 million modernization that includes addition of a flexible body shop