Kansas City Assembly Plant (Ford Claycomo)

The Kansas City Assembly Plant is a Ford Motor Company vehicle-assembly complex in Claycomo, Missouri, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Kansas City. Opened in 1951 for military production, it converted to consumer vehicles in 1957 and has produced the Ford F-150 continuously since then. As of April 2024, the 1,269-acre / 4.7-million-square-foot plant employed roughly 9,021 workers — represented by UAW Local 249 — making it one of the largest single-site private employers in the KC metro.¹

Overview

Location	Claycomo, Missouri (~10 mi NE of downtown KC)
Opened	1951 (initially for military production)1
Converted to consumer vehicles	19571
Site area	1,269 acres (514 ha)1
Production floor	4.7 million sq ft (440,000 m²)1
Workforce (Apr 2024)	~9,0211
Union	UAW Local 2491
Current production	Ford F-150 (since 1957); Ford Transit (since 2014)1

History

Kansas City Assembly Plant opened in 1951 for military production, part of the Korean War industrial buildout across the Midwest. The plant transitioned to consumer vehicle assembly in 1957, and Ford F-Series pickup production has run continuously at Claycomo since that year.¹

Production history

Beyond the flagship F-150, the plant has produced a long list of Ford and Mercury nameplates from 1955 through 2012, including: Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Ford Contour, Mercury Mystique, Ford Tempo, Mercury Topaz, Ford Fairmont, and Ford Falcon, among others.¹

In 2012, the facility became the North American lead production site for the Ford Transit commercial van; Transit production began at Claycomo in 2014.¹

Public plant tours were discontinued on September 12, 2001, following the September 11 attacks.¹

Sources

See also

• claycomo-mo
• clay-county-mo
• the-northland
• Wiki

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Kansas City Assembly.” — asserts: location in Claycomo, Missouri ~10 miles northeast of downtown Kansas City; opened 1951 for military production; site of 1,269 acres (514 ha) with 4.7 million sq ft (440,000 m²) production space; ~9,021 workers as of April 2024, represented by UAW Local 249; current production of Ford F-150 (continuous since 1957) and Ford Transit (since 2014); transition from military manufacturing to consumer vehicles in 1957; historical models produced including Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Ford Contour, Mercury Mystique, Ford Tempo, Mercury Topaz, Ford Fairmont, and Ford Falcon (1955–2012); plant tours discontinued September 12, 2001 following the September 11 attacks; 2012 selection as North American lead site for Ford Transit. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²