What factory layout(s) are people finding best?

[MrGowdy]

Curious what type of general designs people are finding most useful? I generally see two main types:

a) You build large areas/floors that produce 1 type of component, screws for example, and then ship those screws to other areas/floors to be used by machines that need them.

b) You create a factory/floor that has every machine needed to make one specific item. You then ship the required ore/bars to that factory.

Main difference between A and B if it wasn't clear:
a) more simplistic factory setups, ship parts around
b) more advanced factory setups, ship only ore around

[GobboKirk]

I am in a mix of giant mess and starting to get semi organised, then I unlock something new and it's back to mess.
I call it flexible manufacturing :)

[Bocephus666]

I’m curious about this as well.

[Dwarf80]

this is getting too much to be like my job as a production tech, im just as tired after playing the game as when i got off work ! Now if i could just build robots and program them to do all the work, all i would have to do is service them to keep them running to keep the presses running.

[Tankfriend]

A mix of both. I'm running a main tower that is completely dedicated to smelting, and this ships bars to all the other buildings.

Each building is specialized in producing a specific end product and all the necessary intermediate parts are produced inside that building if
a) they are easy to produce on-site (1-2 production steps at the most) or
b) are difficult to ship in from outside (like screws - the quantity is just too high)

In cases where production on site is impractical, I ship them in from the building that produces the parts and adjust production accordingly.

I also tend to put storage containers before and after every production line step as buffer and easy access to stuff.

[Dwarf80]

this is so big that i need to think about blueprinting a layout and think about where everything would be placed, just throwing everything down and hope for the best is what has me banging my head. Getting a list of every thing in the game that can be made and deciding what, where and when to place. I started out like everyone else just throwing stuff down and now looks like a plate of spagetti....

[Evilsod]

I don't see how you can properly utilise the 3D aspect of it, in the sense of multiple a factory with multiple floors. At least, not without an insane amount of planning to the level of probably having to study architecture ><

Things get messy, real messy, and most of the buildings are pretty big.

This was the side where I wanted to make a neat smelting array for the two normal copper/iron nodes, feeding into a series of constructors for basic materials.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133317138

A lovely colour coordinated two-story factory, walkways for access, storage at the back with yellow fencing, panel windowed rear, reinforced sides, glass/frame ceiling.

This is what the rest of my factory looks like, accounting for the complex recipe's of the higher tier materials.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133317317

Note the old section for the impure iron nodes that I haven't torn down since my last redesign, in the middle of my belt forest.

[Lukkyb]

yeah i recently unlocked steel production and will do a full factory rebuild ( i didnt acount for the amount of copper needed in the last one) when i have done the second teir of the space elevator but currently everything is neat apart form the spaggeti of converyes near my steel production

[CrazyOdd]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

I don't see how you can properly utilise the 3D aspect of it, in the sense of multiple a factory with multiple floors. At least, not without an insane amount of planning to the level of probably having to study architecture ><

Things get messy, real messy, and most of the buildings are pretty big.

The logistic of moving stuff around, is maybe the biggest challenge in the game.

As for using height, its not that hard, if you just leave space for lifts between floors.

[Dwarf80]

kind of like having the elevator in the center and building everything around it in octagonal layout, getting a brain aneurysm just thinking about it now.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by CrazyOdd:

The logistic of moving stuff around, is maybe the biggest challenge in the game.

As for using height, its not that hard, if you just leave space for lifts between floors.

That's the thing. To what benefit?

Maybe its different on some of the more enclosed starting locations, but building it further along is no different to building it above, it's also a lot easier to see where things are going. I can maybe see it working if you used something like main bus on a stacked conveyor system and tried to build everything vertically, but vertical construction is far more awkward than horizontal construction.

Not to mention the foundations really spoil the view ><

[Humpenstilzchen]

I´m a total newbie to this game and I think I´m falling into the b category. I always try to get the raw resources to my main factory and then I make seperate building for the differrent stuff, though as times goes on and the more things I add it becomes super messy lol.

Here are some pictures of this insanity:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133354722
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133355243
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2130897634
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133356018
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133355548
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133354989
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133354853

[tulle040657]

I am without a doubt a shipper

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133373705

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133373866

[Snip]

My factory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs8zp8ID3jM&t=994s

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by Snip:

My factory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs8zp8ID3jM&t=994s

Very impressive! I hope I can also build that well organized when I have more experience. Thx for the inspiration.

[Atomizer]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2132858686
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2132860611

This is only my latest game, but I have been doing it in rows for this, ore -> ingots -> plates/rods -> screws -> reinforced plates/rotors, with 2 input loops, one for the ore and one for the ingots(shown in the first screenshot).
It then outputs everything into storages that can be routed out the front:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133381903

Then I have the copper factory(which was actually built before the iron one), which was built before I unlocked the sheets(ended up building a different factory for that somewhere else):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133382867

So I tend to make products on site, I do have a steel factory going too, that makes beams/pipes, which I have expanded into a separated factory with nearby sources of limestone/copper to make encased steel beams and stators.