At what point is enough is storage and time to sink?

[Corvuscroft]

I've got a storage system from hell I've got plastic 6 industrial storage's high, same with screws, quick wire and and others. It seems as if I'm spending more time at my storage trying to keep that straight and not stopped because of the containers being full.

[Wolfgang]

I would say two industrial storage containers should be enough.

[Shurenai]

For most things you probably don't even need an industrial storage- Anything you use to build a lot you might want 2 industrial storages.. Beyond that, Sink everything. If you find your storage lacking in components, then build more production, not more storage- so it fills faster, and sinks more in the down time.

[GobboKirk]

I've gone with 3 industrial, anything after that goes in the sink.
It's in co-op though so figured might be nice to have more, but in the end, as much as you feel you need I guess.

[Dreadlow]

I got sick of handing it all over to Ficsit so I built a storage building for 36 items, 12 boxes each and earn coupons from sinking once they fill. I'm thinking of ripping the roof off and adding another 12. There's not much in the shop worth buying imo.

[DaBa]

Not sure why you need so many items, you should only store items you actually need to build your base or make other things, and in quantities that actually make sense. If you're storing so many items, you're definitely making way too many of them. Nobody needs even a normal storage worth of things like screws for example.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by DaBa:

Not sure why you need so many items, you should only store items you actually need to build your base or make other things, and in quantities that actually make sense. If you're storing so many items, you're definitely making way too many of them. Nobody needs even a normal storage worth of things like screws for example.

Exactly this. (the following is for you OP)
1 container, tops, unless it's some sort of specific building material that you'll be using tons of like concrete, iron plates/rods, wire, cable, ect, then maybe an industrial container. And you should have a smart splitter right before any containers like that to send overflow straight to a sink.

You ideally shouldn't be storing even a moderate amount of anything that's gonna be used in further production, because there's literally no point. Quantity is pointless in this game, it's all about throughput.

Because if you horde a bunch of parts, what does that do for you? Nothing. You'll either have a container of parts that'll never empty, because you're using the same amount or less than you're putting in. Making your production constantly start and stop. Or, you use more than you're putting in, and you'll eventually run out, it could take awhile, but you WILL eventually run out if your production is lower than your consumption.

[Aven]

As someone who maintains that no belt should ever stop, machines should only be fed exactly what they can use, and that my power usage line should be flat: every production line or factory that I build has access to an overflow sink.

[kLuns]

I use 1 industrial container per item. Throughput is more important to me than a big stockpile.

[Man's Best Friend]

What is even the purpose of having 6 industrial containers for each product? Aren't you using any of it? I get setting up buffers, or having a bit of storage to pull from manually and build with, but 6 for each thing seems rather excessive.

Also side note, screws are often used in such quantities that it's best to just manufacture them on demand right before you need them. Especially if you have the steel screw recipe.

[Obz3hL33t]

Big honkin' crate farms make sense for "burst production" once the downstream production goes online. If you know there's going to be a huge surge in demand for Steel Pipes once you get Stator and Heavy Frame production going of course you should want a head start. Why not fill a few crates when the alternatives are either idle machinery or the Sink? While you're out building let the stuff you've already built be building, too!

Your very first Modular Frame factory should be attached to lots of storage. Those things take a long time to build, and you're going to need a lot of them.

This is the point: storage is an early-to-midgame tool. The Space Elevator shipments represent the Mother of All Burst Jobs. Once you've completed all shipments you theoretically no longer have any use for storage except for ammo and construction materials.

So do you have too many crates? It depends on how much of your inventory will need to go up the Elevator.

[Vectorspace]

It's enough when you go to gather all the materials you need for a new build project and you have enough.

For me - it's iron rods/plates, (belt/pipe supports) concrete (foundations/walls), silica (windows) steel beams/pipes (railway), copper sheet (pipes) and alclad sheets (mk5 belts) that I always want to store the most of.

[Grandaddypurple]

Storage size is moot, the rate at which you replenish it is what you're looking for.
A single storage of concrete or iron plate is enough if you replenish them with 120 parts/min. By the time you use a full storage worth of materials on a big projets, the storage will be full again

[Obz3hL33t]

Yeah but how fast are you building those silver assembly cubes? If you have a few crates saved up that'll save many hours of building. Even Automated Wiring is a nice part to have a few crates of.

While I'm building the next Tier the bottleneck parts from the previous Tier keep stockpiling. That's the way to do it.

[Corvuscroft]

OK, to answer a few of the questions, this is my second play threw. On my first I could't have enough screws , wire, cable etc hence the hording. I guess because I don't know what tier 7 and 8 are going to require and I already know the space needle is requiring 4000 of each , it makes sense to have a bunch on hand. With the suggestions and statements made here I see that I need to use a power switch and turn the factories off and or re purpose them. At any rate I guess I got caught up in the feeling of not having enough. I used to work for the automotive industry in different capacities first as a truck driver and then as an engineer, they preach just in time, storage is waste of time and money. Learn from experience.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Originally posted by Corvuscroft:

OK, to answer a few of the questions, this is my second play threw. On my first I could't have enough screws , wire, cable etc hence the hording. I guess because I don't know what tier 7 and 8 are going to require and I already know the space needle is requiring 4000 of each , it makes sense to have a bunch on hand. With the suggestions and statements made here I see that I need to use a power switch and turn the factories off and or re purpose them. At any rate I guess I got caught up in the feeling of not having enough. I used to work for the automotive industry in different capacities first as a truck driver and then as an engineer, they preach just in time, storage is waste of time and money. Learn from experience.

From that perspective it's probably more like military procurement. Thank you for investing all that money tooling up to make all that expensive hardware for us, please go out of business now because we're not buying anymore and you're not allowed to sell to foreigners.

As a practical matter, I figure one industrial storage container is usually enough flux for every part. I've never run short of parts to build any infrastructure from this reserve. You'll just need to figure out how many of what components are needed to fulfill the current phase's project order.

I can't recommend shutting down or retooling production lines if you can help it. The same factory that makes all your iron products in phase one can keep doing so just fine in phase four. Just make sure you have everything you need being made somewhere, and you'll never have to worry about running out. You can even setup trains later to gather up all those parts into a single warehouse if you want.

And if you really just want to break the game in half over your knee, there's always spreadsheets.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2827896615