Harvey County Sheriff T Walton said the gunman was an employee at Excel Industries, located in Hesston, a tight-knit community north of Wichita.
Walton said the first officer to arrive at the scene shot the gunman, saving "many, many lives."
"This is a horrible situation, just terrible," Walton said, adding that his department received a congratulatory call from the White House after the incident.
The carnage was the latest in a string of mass shootings in the United States, where such attacks have become commonplace.
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Walton said the gunman, who he declined to identify, first fired at two motorists from his car, and then stole a pickup truck from one of his victims before heading to the factory.
He shot a woman in the parking lot with an assault rifle and then entered the facility unleashing a volley of bullets as people ran for their lives screaming "run, fire, fire," according to one witness.
Matt Jarrell, a painter at Excel, told CNN affiliate KSNW that "never in a million years" would he have expected Ford to do something like this before he saw him open fire.
"He was a mellow guy," Jarrell said. "He was somebody I could talk to about anything."
Ford recently moved to the area from Miami, and had an extensive criminal record, including a history of prowling, loitering and illegal weapons possession, media reports said.
But officers later obtained a warrant and entered the home only to find it empty, KSNW reported.
The victims were taken to local hospitals, -- where five were deemed to be in critical condition -- as family members rushed to the factory for news of their loved ones.
One man said his 21-year-old nephew had been shot four times.
"I hear about these shootings at theatres and things, and it's just a mess... It's horrible," an eyewitness said, referring to other mass shootings across the country.