Highland Park was designed by
Albert Kahn Associates in 1908 and was opened in 1910. Ford automotive production had previously taken place at the
Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, where the first Model Ts were built. The Highland Park Ford Plant was approximately northwest of the original
Dodge Brothers factory who were subcontractors for Ford, producing precision engine and chassis components for the Model T. It was also approximately northwest of the former
Brush-
Maxwell plant, which later became
Highland Park Chrysler Plant the headquarters for the
Chrysler Corporation. The complex included offices, factories, a power plant and a foundry as part of Ford's strategy of
integrating the
supply chain. About 102 acres in size the Highland Park Plant was the largest manufacturing facility in the world at the time of its opening. Because of its spacious design, it set the precedent for many factories and production plants built thereafter. Using
division of labor, rigorous cost-cutting and process optimization, the factory went through an
experience curve to reduce price and increase volume. The new assembly line improved production time of the Model T from 728 to 93 minutes. The Highland Park assembly line lowered the price of the Model T from $700 () in 1910 to $350 () in 1917, making it an affordable automobile for most Americans. On January 5, 1914, Ford announced that factory wages would be raised from a daily rate of $2.34 () to $5.00 (), and that daily shifts would be reduced from nine hours to eight. After the increase in pay, Ford claimed that the turnover rate of 31.9 percent in 1913 decreased to 1.4 percent in 1915. Ford offered nearly three times the wages paid at other unskilled manufacturing plants. Throughout the 1980s parts of the factory were dismantled and torn down, including a large factory building, the boiler building and the administrative building. By the mid-1990s neither plant was producing tractors or tractor parts, as Ford had sold off its tractor and implement interests in stages during the 1990-1993 period. During the 2010s large portions of steel-framed warehouse buildings were scrapped in favor of a stock yard for tenants. Other companies occupying this property included a scrap yard and a cement plant. By 2011, Ford used the facility to store documents and artefacts for the
Henry Ford Museum. A portion is also occupied by a
Forman Mills clothing warehouse that opened in 2006. ==Current status==