Import vs Manufacture

[Citybuild122]

Hey there. Coming to you guys with a question today. I've got manufacturing and stockpiles on one side of my factory, therefore delivering to the production lines. Some parts are still imported. The question is, is it better to manufacture or import, price wise?

The problem is that even the close lines have a few issues of waiting for resources, while the ones that are far away are drastically impacted by waiting for the resource. Which brings me back to my question. Sure, manufacturing lowers component cost some. But does it account for the decrease in efficiency?

[Citybuild122]

Anyone have thoughts?

[Thy Reaper]

It's always better to manufacture, for all components, virtually all the time. Besides the price benefits, most manufacturing also reduces import load.

You can use stockpiles set to Local Only to reduce your 'waiting for resource' problems, but you'll always have some of that going on.

[gGeorg]

Manufacture could be interesting sometimes. No always.
If your consumption si smaller than max production of factory slot, then you waste potential, therfore you migh even pay more than buy few items.

I would recomend start manufaturer with tires, wheels, brakes, widows, lighs. e.g. more than two pieces are used in one car, so you would be efficient.

In general, prodction of single piece item per car like roof or windscreen is qestionable. Perhaps for monstrous mega factory.

I wwould prefer set stockpiles to "prefer local" , setting "only local" might be dangerous.

[Citybuild122]

Originally posted by gGeorg:

Manufacture could be interesting sometimes. No always.
If your consumption si smaller than max production of factory slot, then you waste potential, therfore you migh even pay more than buy few items.

I would recomend start manufaturer with tires, wheels, brakes, widows, lighs. e.g. more than two pieces are used in one car, so you would be efficient.

In general, prodction of single piece item per car like roof or windscreen is qestionable. Perhaps for monstrous mega factory.

I wwould prefer set stockpiles to "prefer local" , setting "only local" might be dangerous.

I just went down the list and manufactured all components. For comparison sake, how many cars should I be producing an hour with a fully upgraded line? I want to make sure I am doing this right. I always set everything to prefer local.

[gGeorg]

I am pretty new in this game, I have found that the production slot is best set to default "Anything" and stockpile to "prefer local" other combinations are slower or have a chance to complete stop.

[Citybuild122]

https://ufile.io/03ldn

Here is my savefile. If anyone would be willing to look at my factory and give me feedback, that'd be great.

[danloveschrista]

There's an issue with the way parts supply is handled, which would probably require a large amount of work to fix. Currently, especially late-game, some assembly slots cannot stock enough parts for even one vehicle, and end up waiting for parts a lot, even if there's a good stockpile right next to them. Some people just build a a ton of parallel slots to mitigate this and sort of force a better supply volume.

i.e. If your Door Panel stations are always waiting for parts, build more Door Panel stations along side on parallel conveyors. They'll all spend a chunk of time waiting for parts, but the volume of cars produced per hour will go up. You won't get the "advertised" throughput per station once each car requires more than about 6 parts, because the slot stockpile is 12.

[gGeorg]

Originally posted by danloveschrista:

There's an issue with the way parts supply is handled, which would probably require a large amount of work to fix. Currently, especially late-game, some assembly slots cannot stock enough parts for even one vehicle, and end up waiting for parts a lot, even if there's a good stockpile right next to them. Some people just build a a ton of parallel slots to mitigate this and sort of force a better supply volume.

i.e. If your Door Panel stations are always waiting for parts, build more Door Panel stations along side on parallel conveyors. They'll all spend a chunk of time waiting for parts, but the volume of cars produced per hour will go up. You won't get the "advertised" throughput per station once each car requires more than about 6 parts, because the slot stockpile is 12.

Try combination I said.
It helps.

[mikeydsc]

A couple ways to improve speed.

The biggest slow down in the game is the limited import slots. Get those topics researched early game.
An easy way to work around this is to set your stockpiles as close as you can by the importers. Set these stockpiles to the items that are the most requested such as steel or glass or rubber. This allows your importers to pull parts sooner and have some waiting already that can be used else where.

Add your make slots close to these stockpiles so the raw resources can be pulled from there. This allows the importers to grab outside parts for the less used parts faster.

I often open up one room that has allot of importers and install my make slots there so there is some speed to import needed resources to assemble into the car part. I also over build by 1 extra make slot to keep production rates up.

Its also worth considering to start making parts by the install slots with 1 or 2 make slots just to use as a fast filler to fill in the extra couple seconds needed to move parts across the factory floor. I also have a couple parallel importer conveyors so more parts can move at once. A single line can only move so many at one time, but by doubling up the line, you have 2x the parts moving.

Also placing stockpiles in along the path, you can keep moving finished parts closer to the install slot.

Its really a feel thing and the more floors you build, the better your decisions will be.

[Regumika]

Two reasons to manufacture parts, saving money and lighten the load on import lines. Import line can only import so fast, but with manufacture you can import 1 rubber to get 2 tires or 1 steel plate to get 2 doors. With enough research you can even get steel to steel plate to doors at the cost of 1 steel, some initial investment, wages, and power.

Some items do not lighten the load to import lines and can only save you money, like seats. Importing a basic seat is $900. Buying 1 leather to make 1 seat cost $500. So you save at the minimum $800 (for two seats, or $1600 for four) on every car by making your own.

[mikeydsc]

Originally posted by Regumika:

Two reasons to manufacture parts, saving money and lighten the load on import lines. Import line can only import so fast, but with manufacture you can import 1 rubber to get 2 tires or 1 steel plate to get 2 doors. With enough research you can even get steel to steel plate to doors at the cost of 1 steel, some initial investment, wages, and power.

Some items do not lighten the load to import lines and can only save you money, like seats. Importing a basic seat is $900. Buying 1 leather to make 1 seat cost $500. So you save at the minimum $800 (for two seats, or $1600 for four) on every car by making your own.

This is almost true. Need to add in the additional cost of power and the labor (workers). Even the costs of floor space is included in the game calculations.