Historic Ford Factory Celebrates Centennial

Photo by Austin Weber

CHICAGO—Ford Motor Co.’s Chicago Assembly Plant officially celebrated its centennial yesterday with a big birthday bash and an open house for employees' families. The facility has been building vehicles on the city’s South Side since a Model T rolled off the line in 1924. Aside from being the largest manufacturer in Chicago today, the historic factory holds the distinction of being Ford’s oldest continuously operating production facility.

The Chicago Assembly Plant has withstood the Great Depression, World War II and the Covid pandemic, plus changing consumer tastes, labor strikes and supplier shortages. Along the way, the factory has produced a wide variety of vehicles, including Model A sedans, M8 armored military vehicles, F-100 pickup trucks, Country Squire station wagons, Galaxie 500 convertibles, Mercury Marquis sedans, Thunderbird coupes and Taurus sedans.

The 100-year-old plant located along the banks of the Calumet River has been retooled multiple times over the years to keep up with the latest car styles and the newest production equipment. Today, the facility assembles sport utility vehicles such as the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and Police Interceptor.

More than 3.3 million SUVs have been assembled at the Chicago Assembly Plant since production began there in 2010. To mark the facility’s centennial, the interior of the 2025 Ford Explorer features a rendition of the Chicago skyline. It’s located on the passenger-side instrument panel end cap and is visible whenever the door is open.

“We are on a journey to world-class manufacturing at Chicago Assembly Plant and everywhere across our footprint,” says Bryce Currie, vice president of manufacturing for the America’s at Ford.

One of the latest cutting-edge production tools deployed in Chicago is Mobile AI Vision System (MAIVS), which is used to assist in vehicle checks. MAIVS combines mobile phone cameras and artificial intelligence to perform quality inspections at various points during the assembly process. There are 65 MAIVS cameras in use at the Chicago Assembly Plant.

Click here to learn more about the history of the Chicago Assembly Plant.

Austin has been senior editor for ASSEMBLY Magazine since September 1999. He has more than 21 years of b-to-b publishing experience and has written about a wide variety of manufacturing and engineering topics. Austin is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

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