San Jose Assembly Plant


San Jose Assembly Plant was a Ford Motor Company manufacturing site in Northern California, the automaker's primary factory in that region from 1955 to 1983, replacing the Richmond Assembly facility. The plant was located in what is now Milpitas, California, United States. Numerous vehicles were produced at the plant including the Ford Falcon, Ford Maverick and Ford Mustang. It was also the manufacturing location for the West coast of the Ford Fairlane, Ford Torino, Ford Pinto, Ford Escort and the short lived Edsel Ranger and Edsel Pacer. Mercury products such as the Mustang-based Cougar, Montego, Comet, Bobcat, Capri and the Lynx were also assembled there. Ford F-series trucks were produced there, nearly from inception of the plant until its closure in 1983.

History

Personnel and equipment were transferred from Richmond to San Jose starting February 23, 1955. The last truckload of equipment was scheduled to depart Richmond on February 26, 1955, with most of the transfer work performed by Ford employees working overtime.
It was one of only three locations where Ford manufactured the Mustang; the other sites were Dearborn Assembly and Edison Assembly.
The plant closed in 1983, citing competition from Japanese imports and the building reopened as a mall in 1994, the Great Mall of the Bay Area. It was one of the first plants in the nation where the term "automation" originated because most of the assembly line was interlinked and did not depend on human control.