A Systems Engineer Plays Satisfactory

This guide is written by a practicing systems engineer with more than 25 years of professional experience, who has also been playing computer games since the 1970's. It shows how systems engineering can provide ways of thinking and tools that let you play Satisfactory for fun and yet be economical with your time and in-game resources; identify the many tradeoffs confronting the player, and how some are stylistic while others are substantive; and help teams of players work together in a coordinated way in multiplayer builds. Updated for 1.0.

CHANGELOG

6 October 2024: Updated for 1.0

• Added section for online resources below Physical Architecture, as these resources are maps, calculators, blueprints, etc. to help pioneers calculate production, design production lines, build factories and transportation networks, and much more.
  
• Added references to blueprint designer in the description of machine gangs and subfactories, as these are incredibly useful for quickly mass-producing large production lines.

19 December 2022

• Thanks to Drunken Lizard for pointing out that the coal *miners* and not the coal *generators* should be run on a separate electric grid if wanting to insulate the generators from stopping if the main grid trips.

8 June 2022

• In running through the math for a transportation guide, I realized that I had misunderstood the benefit of conveyors over vehicle transport. Conveyors are the most energy efficient, but vehicles provide much more throughput if you are willing to spend the energy. Strategic Tradeoffs has been updated.

5 June 2022

• Augmented section on sizing your storage and included a simple formula.
  
• Minor edits throughout to increase readability and clarity.

3 June 2022

• Added discussion in Operational Tradeoffs about using your transportation system among factories as a large-scale manifold, and cited circular train routes as an example.

1 June 2022

• Trying to be more inclusive of roads, tractors, and trucks. Trains are more sexy, but they only become available later in the game. Meanwhile, roads have become easier to make with X3-Roads and mods that create customized curves, so road vehicles can be more useful as part of your transportation network.

17 May 2022

• Added bullet in Systems Thinking section about changes in one part of the system creating changes elsewhere, and how architecture helps us find the consequences
  
• Minor grammatical fixes

6 May 2022

• Embedded figures and videos now show correctly.
  
• Added links to videos by TotalXclipse and Createin that do an excllent job of describing factory design, both functionally and aesthetically.

Introduction

Who am I to make this guide?

I am a practicing systems engineer with more than 25 years of professional experience. I’ve been playing video games since the Atari and Commodore64 days and understand the expanding limits of computer simulation.

What this guide is about

• Show how systems engineering can provide ways of thinking and tools that let you play Satisfactory for fun and yet be economical with your time and in-game resources
  
  • Minimize errors and rework
    
  • Minimize frustration, especially dealing with late game complexity
    
  • Minimize power consumption, resource needs (production and construction)
    
  • Minimize space, number of buildings, transportation infrastructure
• Identify the many tradeoffs confronting the player, and how some are stylistic while others are substantive
  
• Help teams of players work together in a coordinated way in multiplayer builds

Who is this guide for?

• For those who tend to plan their factories
  
• For those who want to manage late game complexity from the very beginning
  
• For those who want to create builds in a team environment, where you need to
  
  • Minimize friction within the team
    
  • Minimize misunderstandings, errors, and rework
    
  • Maximize productivity (usually because you are working to a schedule)
• For those who want to learn systems engineering using Satisfactory as a digital model
  
• For those who want to have more confidence that their design decisions are evidence-based

What this guide is not

• A substitute for proper systems engineering education
  
  • This is a simplified approach tailored for use with Satisfactory, not systems in general
    
  • INCOSE has online training and certification courses (www.incose.org)
• A how-to guide for designing and building specific factories and transportation systems
  
  • Many content creators are far more qualified and have generated substantial content to help
• A project management guide for single- or multiplayer builds
  
  • YouTube has many PMP certified content creators that are far more qualified and have generated substantial content to help

Satisfactory is a game. This entire approach is intended to make it easier to play, not to take the fun out of it. Your hard work, channeled by good patterns of thinking, can create wonders in the alien world.

A Short Introduction to Systems Engineering

What is a system?

• Simple definition: A system is an arrangement of parts or elements that together exhibit behavior or meaning that the individual parts do not
  
  • We want the complex behavior that the system's structure provides through the interaction of its parts!
    
  • Simpler structures might limit the system to simpler behavior, which is not enough to satisfy our requirements
• Formal definitions: https://www.incose.org/about-systems-engineering/system-and-se-definition/system-and-se-definitions
  
• Generic hierarchy: A system is made up of “components”
  
• Hierarchy is recursive: Components are made of smaller components

Systems Thinking – How to think like a Systems Engineer

• We turn abstract customer needs and ideas into concrete solutions that satisfy the customer and are delivered on time and on budget
  
• We emphasize planning and analysis:
  
  • Understand the problem
    
  • Take time to generate possible solutions
    
  • Understand the solutions through modeling and experimentation
    
    • Know what you need to build
      
    • Know how it is going to work
      
    • Know how to build it
  • Choose “the best” solution
    
  • Implement your solution
    
  • Monitor your solution
    
    • Does it actually work the way you thought it would?
      
    • Does it actually work the way it needs to?
      
    • Do you need to make changes to the design? Or just the implementation?
• We emphasize quality: Build it correctly the first time, and verify that you did
  
• We emphasize learning: We don’t know everything about the system from the start, so we incorporate what we learn along the way as we make progress
  
• We emphasize structure: We use architecture and layers of abstraction to make sense of complex structure and behavior
  
• We understand that changes we make in one part of the system may cause changes in other parts of the system, and that without good architecture we might not learn the consequences until later when it is more expensive to fix

Systems have a Lifecyle: Tailor it to your advantage

• Definition: Planning phase (What will the system do)
  
• Procurement: Contracting with someone to develop and deliver the system (Not applicable to Satisfactory unless you want to design and let someone else create your vision)
  
• Development: Planning phase (How will the system work in the presence of operating environment constraints, Physical layouts)
  
• Production & Deployment: Gather/Build the necessary resources and Build the system according to design
  
• Operations & Sustainment: Keep the system properly supplied and free of interruption
  
• Retirement: Usually associated only with starter factories

Links to look at for more detailed information

• https://www.incose.org/about-systems-engineering/system-and-se-definition/systems-engineering-definition
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_engineering

Adapting Systems Engineering to Satisfactory

• You are your own customer
  
• You need to have vision
  
  • Vision allows you to create your world via concrete goals and objectives
• Your system needs a mission, and you define it
  
  • Unlock all tiers?
    
  • Unlock all Project Assembly phases?
    
  • Max build particular items?
    
  • Max build every item?
    
  • Max process every resource node of a particular type?
    
  • Max process every resource node for every resource?
    
  • Stand there and look beautiful?
• Avoid the rush to build: Planning is important
  
  • The game already has machinery designed, so most of us just start building to learn the game mechanics and keep going… into later trouble
    
  • Successful real-world projects spend ~10-20% of budget and schedule on systems engineering activities (planning, analysis, monitoring)
    
  • Instead of rushing, use early game time to prototype ideas while you learn game mechanics: learn early, find failure points early so you can avoid them later
    
  • A typical junior engineer rushes toward the first solution they come up with; a systems engineer takes time to identify and understand the problem and the most promising potential solutions before selecting a final solution
    
  • This is especially important in multi-player builds, where the team needs to have a single overarching vision and a coordinated build sequence, yet allow room for their individual creativity (subordinated to that single vision and build sequence)
    
    • The systems engineer is responsible for helping the team agree to that vision, then stay in harmony with that vision
      
    • The project manager works with the systems engineer to lay out the build sequence and keep the team on schedule
      
    • The systems engineer and project manager keep the project team from getting bogged down with irrelevant details that can create schedule delays
• Embrace complexity at the macro level, but keep things simple at the micro level
  
  • Complex systems, when decomposed, are ultimately made from simple components that are composed in complex ways

System Development Overview: Definition Phase

Goal: Proceed from abstract vision to concrete design

• Go from “What” the system needs to do to “How” the system needs to work
  
• Starts simple but gets more complex the deeper you go into the design (less abstract, more concrete)

Multiple perspectives of a system are captured in “system architecture”

• Customer perspective: Requirements view
  
  • Example: Make required deliveries to space elevator
    
  • Example: Make X Plutonium Fuel Rods per minute
    
  • Example: Generate the most power possible
• Operations perspective: Important when system will interact with other systems
  
  • Space elevator deliveries?
• Abstract perspective: Logical/Behavioral view
  
  • Example: Recipe selection and flow rates for all items, from raw resources to final product, without regard to HOW the items will be produced or transported
• Concrete perspective: Physical view
  
  • Example: Table of how many machines of each type (set at what efficiencies) are required to produce all items
    
  • Example: Drawings or sketches of factory layouts, train stations
    
  • Example: Drawing or sketches of road or railway system layout on a map; list of train consists and timetables
• Testing perspective: Verification view
  
  • How will system be integrated and errors identified and corrected?
    
  • Example: Test procedure for a single connected machine

All five perspectives must be kept consistent as the system is designed and built

• Development occurs from all five perspectives in parallel, as insights in one area can influence other areas

Problem Solving is part Art, part Science

• Online tools help you choose recipes, calculate the flow requirements, and calculate the equipment and resources required to build and operate your factory: this is the Science part
  
• Online tools do NOT help you site or layout your factory: this is the Art part

Development Strategy: Do you need to learn or not?

Which strategy to choose is determined by how much you already know

• If you have a clear understanding of how the game works, it is okay to use Waterfall
  
• Otherwise, take an iterative approach to increase your understanding while you play

Waterfall: design the entire system up front, then build the entire system (and test parts along the way), then test and troubleshoot the entire system

• Possible to do in Satisfactory, unless you do not fully understand the mechanics
  
• The online calculators and detailed wiki make Waterfall possible, because they provide complete knowledge of everything that is possible
  
• Process of unlocking tiers prevents full capability from being built immediately
  
  • Example: Unable to build rail network to connect distributed factories as they are built, which delays testing and troubleshooting factory interactions at full scale
• The upside to Waterfall is it can be the most efficient, but only when you know what you are doing from the start
  
• The downside to Waterfall occurs when you discover a flaw in your design and have to potentially rework the entire system
  
  • This is usually due to having an incomplete understanding when you started, but not realizing it until much later in the development process
    
  • The later the flaw is discovered, the more expensive it is to rework
    
  • Waterfall does NOT build learning into the development process
• You should only start with this strategy if you are an experienced player starting a new build

Iterative: design a little, build a little, test and troubleshoot a little, learn a lot, repeat

• Satisfactory grants new capabilities as each Tier is unlocked, forcing the player through an iterative process of unlock-learn-build-produce-(unlock)
  
• This process works at the small scale:
  
  • As each new Tier is unlocked, you must learn how to use the new building blocks
• This process also works at the large scale:
  
  • The building blocks become whole factories and ways of connecting them
    
  • If you look ahead on the wiki and use tools like satisfactorytools.com or satisfactory-calculator.com, you can define the full system up front and build it out in phases as Tiers and Project Assembly phases are unlocked
    
  • Early game factories can be integrated into future plans or retired
• The upside to Iterative occurs when you discover a flaw in your design but have to rework what you’ve built so far, which is usually only a limited part of the full system
  
  • Iterative emphasizes learning as part of the development process
• The downside to Iterative is the additional time and resources it takes to cycle through each iteration
  
  • However, in actual practice, this extra time is much, much smaller than required for rework experienced doing Waterfall
• This is the strategy you should start with as you develop your understanding of the game

Hybrid: Break development into Iterative phases, but use either Iterative or Waterfall within each phase

• Example: As you gain familiarity placing Constructors and conveyors, you begin to use them in re-usable patterns—you are developing your own style
  
  • You used Iterative while learning the game, as you created design patterns that you like, but now you can use Waterfall to implement those patterns elsewhere
    
  • The patterns get bigger as you learn the game: You move from placing constructors and conveyors to placing whole factories and how they connect to transportation systems
• This is the strategy you get to as you play more and learn more

Development Process in a Nutshell

1. Define and analyze requirements
2. Define logical/behavioral architecture
3. Define physical architecture
4. Define verification approach

These steps are detailed below.

Define and Analyze Requirements: Introduction

State clearly what you want the system to do and to what level it must perform

• Example: Finish Project Assembly Phase 1, make 50 smart plates at a rate of 2 per minute

Understand your style and preferences by examining tradeoffs inherent in the game. These fall into two main categories:

• Strategic tradeoffs, which are harder to rework later in the game
  
• Operational tradeoffs, which are easier (not necessarily easy) to rework later in the game

Confront these choices at the beginning, make your decisions, and move forward!

--Strategic Tradeoffs

Factory Size and Quantity

• Single megafactory
  
• Interacting large regional factories
  
• Interacting smaller distributed factories

TotalXclipse looked in detail at this issue as he looked back across 4000 hours of play and many builds full of evolving ideas. He started with smaller modular factories as he learned, then gradually understood how to make a megafactory that not only functioned well but also looked architecturally stunning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiaoWlPc37U

Here, he also gives a great discussion of the pros and cons of each approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQWtke0dz7Y&list=PL4tOnOUy94gq3nd38oadFNEHdFC6ZMrdB&index=7

Production Mix per Factory

• Single item
  
• Multiple unrelated items
  
• Multiple related items

Example: Iron ore into iron ingots (single item)
Example: Iron ore and copper ore into iron and copper ingots (unrelated)
Example: Iron ore into iron ingots into iron rods and plates (related)

Building height and height above ground

• Build near the ground
  
• Build up in the air
  
• A bit of both

Do you preserve and incorporate nature, or do you clear it as needed? Do your structures need visible support, or are you okay with floating floors?

Transportation equipment

Will you transport materials between factories via

• conveyors/pipes
  
• tractors/trucks
  
• trains
  
• drones
  
• a multi-modal approach (i.e., moving materials from one transportation mode to another)

It is well-established that conveyors are the most energy efficient method for moving materials, but they cannot compete with vehicles for throughput.

Multi-modal examples:

• From conveyors to trains and back to conveyors
  
• From conveyors to trucks to trains and back to conveyors

Transportation Route Model (Logical Rail network design)

• Hub-and-Spoke
  
• Point-to-Point

Example: Airline hub models (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_hub)

The purpose of Hub-and-Spoke is to run fewer, more full trains into factory areas by consolidating cargo from many smaller areas using shorter trains. You can have one or multiple hubs, segregated geographically or by cargo type.

Example: A train station in the Dune Desert becomes a regional hub for transporting metals to other regions

* Although I'm writing about trains here, this approach can apply to other vehicles like trucks and tractors, working separately or together with rail and drones.

Exceptions to Hub-and-Spoke:

• “Focus stations” for high value Point-to-Point routes that bypass the hub(s) in order to maximize throughput
  
• Temporary Point-to-Point routes for low-rate or short-term production (while supply is being built-up)
  
• Circuit routes that pick up from multiple stations and drop off at multiple stations. (See the discussion on manifolds further below for more details.)

Physical Rail network design

• Spanning Tree
  
• Mesh

A Spanning Tree connects at most a few nearest neighboring stations to each station, creating a tree-like network with no loops. It minimizes building costs but concentrates traffic and increases rail utilization (watch for traffic jams).

A Mesh network connects many stations to two or more stations, increasing the number of paths from one station to another. A Full Mesh network connects each station directly to every other station, and is not realistic in Satisfactory.

• A real life example of a Full Mesh network is a Wireless Access Point (WAP), which lets every computer talk to every other computer through the WAP.

Partial Mesh networks offer alternate paths among stations, some of which may be shorter than going through a spanning tree, which can reduce transit time and increase cargo throughput between specific station pairs. Point-to-Point routes will be most efficient in a Partial Mesh network, because more direct paths can be created.

How the rails are laid is sort of independent of how you run the trains.

• The routing of trains and consolidation of cargo is in the behavioral architecture
  
• The actual layout of tracks and stations is in the physical architecture
  
• A minimal spanning tree can support hub-and-spoke as well as point-to-point, but it may be more optimal for hub-and-spoke
  
• A mesh is more expensive for hub-and-spoke because many segments would be unused, but you CAN still do hub-and-spoke on a mesh

Integration of transport networks into buildings

• Integrate transportation buildings directly into factories
  
• Keep transportation buildings standalone

Example: Running trains directly into a factory moves materials directly to the production line, but material must be dedicated to that factory and no other

Example: Running trains to a station for regional distribution of materials to multiple factories

Power distribution architecture

• Single grid
  
• Multiple grids

Multiple grids can be interconnected or disconnected. Interconnected grids have a power switch between the grids, but they share power across all connected grids. Disconnected grids have dedicated power suppliers and consumers and do NOT share power to any other grid.

An Interconnected grid becomes a Disconnected grid when the power switch between grids is turned “off”. If power generated in the Disconnected segment is not sufficient to meet demand, the segment will trip, and all machines will turn off.

One recommended use of a Disconnected grid is when you have a power generation facility that depends on specific resources for operation. For example, running the coal miners and water pumps for a coal power plant on a second grid.

Regional power generation vs centralized generation

Because energy resources are scattered across the map, it is possible to distribute power generation regionally:

• Coal plants near sources of coal and water
  
• Gas plants near sources of oil and water
  
• Nuclear plants near sources of uranium and water
  
• Thermal plants must be on thermal vents

An Interconnected grid balances power distribution across the map, especially from regions with more energetic plants (like nuclear) to regions with less energetic plants (like coal). Using Disconnected grids would force high energy-consuming factories into high-energy producing regions.

Centralized generation is also possible, but requires considerable transportation of energy resources and water to the central site. “Central” is meant logically and does not necessarily mean “physically centrally located on the map”. Choosing a location with abundant water will reduce the transportation requirements to support central power generation.

How to handle older factories

• Redevelop
  
• Integrate
  
• Retire/recycle

Early factories are typically low volume and made using older recipes, but they may continue to be useful contributors to the supply chain if their input or output materials or the power they consume is not scarce.

Redeveloping an existing factory to use a new recipe can be a complex challenge, because inputs are usually completely different.

• Significant changes may be needed outside the factory to bring the new recipe inputs to the factory
  
• It may be better to simply build a new factory using the new recipe than to convert an old factory to the new recipe

Consider integrating the older factory into a larger transportation network to aggregate outputs with those of other factories producing the same output.

When certain materials must be made with maximum efficiency and in very large quantities, and factories based on older recipes do not satisfy these requirements, build new factories using new recipes to satisfy the demand, and retire or recycle the older factories to free up power or materials.

--Operational Tradeoffs

Horizontal vs vertical vs hybrid material flow within a factory

Horizontal flow takes place on a single floor, with one part of the production process feeding another on the same floor level:

• Requires a large building footprint on the ground
  
• Requires a lot of planning if you will scale the production process later

Vertical flow takes place across multiple floors, with each part of the production process occupying its own floor level:

• Requires a smaller building footprint on the ground
  
• If each floor is large enough, scaling production is easier than horizontal flow

Hybrid flow combines some horizontal flow with vertical flow:

• Example: Iron Ore smelting alone on floor 1, Iron Rod and Screw production shared on floor 2
  
• Is particularly useful for combining smaller portions of an integrated production process

For more information and examples, search YouTube for “satisfactory vertical factory” (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=satisfactory+vertical+factory)

Functional vs Process flow

Functional Example: Single subfactory creates iron ingots from iron ore and distributes to single subfactory creating iron rods. The unit of expansion is [1 smelter] in ingot subfactory, [1 constructor] in rod subfactory.

Figure 1. Functional flow in two subfactories with a parallelism of 2 in smelting, and 4 in constructing (because subfactories can be considered independent)

Process Example: Single subfactory creates both ingots and rods in a compact production line. The unit of expansion is [1 smelter + 2 constructor].

Figure 2: Process Flow in one subfactory with two stages and parallelism of 2 (i.e., there are two units of production line)

Process Example (Content Creator): Starter factory (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB1t-vy_yaM

Functional Pros/Cons

• Pro: Easy to divert output to other subfactories for same or other purpose
  
• Pro: Can be more efficient with space, because only buildings of one type are built within the subfactory and when expansion is considered; particularly true if the line is dual feed (2x machines per splitter, AKA Butterfly Manifold)
  
• Easy to balance production: fractional efficiency can be set on single machine in a manifold
  
• Con: Larger material flows between subfactories, especially if output rate is higher than input rate (e.g., 60 screws from 10 iron rods), which may require higher tier conveyors or multiple conveyor belts for larger subfactories
  
• Con: Requires additional mergers and splitters

Process Pros/Cons

• Pro: Can use low tier conveyors within the unit of expansion
  
• Pro: If production line is compressive (i.e., output rate is lower than input rate), the collection of output and distribution to other subfactories may allow use of lower tier conveyors
  
• Con: Can be less space efficient with space due to gaps between machines (e.g., large gap between smelters in 2 smelter:4 constructor chain), but may make this up in less space used for mergers and splitters
  
• Pro+Con: Easier to understand production line efficiency, but may be harder to balance
  
  • Each unit of expansion must be tuned individually (but the same way)
    
  • With output-input relationships with large Least Common Multiples, unit of expansion begins to look like functional flow

Functional flow can be used regionally, with multiple specialized factories in a region working together on a combined production chain before sending final outputs to other regions. Each factory creates an item that is part of a larger production chain.

Process flow can be used regionally, with multiple, logically identical factories in a region working together on a combined production chain before sending final outputs to other regions. Each factory creates the same items (but not necessarily at the same rates), which may or may not be pooled before distribution.

Manifold (AKA Overflow) vs Balanced vs hybrid distribution/collection to/from machines

In the long-run, there is no difference between the input and output rates of Manifold vs Balanced distribution systems.

Manifold systems use single material feeds to or from groups of machines. They take longer to begin producing full output because they prioritize filling the input buffer of the machine closest to the manifold input before sending material down the line to more distant machines in the group. Manifolds are common for collecting output from groups of machines, and there is no startup time penalty as there is on the input side.

Balanced systems distribute materials evenly to all machines in the group, so that all begin producing output at the same time and rate. They require additional splitters and floor space to make the distribution. They may be essential to the operation of some machine groups, such as coal power plants to quickly get to maximum power generation.

Balanced output systems are not generally utilized. Manifolds are preferred for collecting outputs.

For more information, search YouTube for “satisfactory manifold” (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=satisfactory+manifold) for examples and comparisons of manifolds and balanced systems

A hybrid example is the injected manifold. In a long manifold, it is possible to split the input 50/50 at the beginning and send half to a merger in the middle of the manifold. The half sent to the middle is “injected” into the manifold, feeding the second half of the group more quickly than a standard manifold.

Another hybrid example: Split evenly to three manifolds from primary input, spooling up each of three smaller manifolds in parallel. This is particularly useful for feeding coal power plants

Finally, it is possible to use your transportation network as a very long manifold. Common usage is to run independent freight consists (of any transportation type) between a single source factory or storage and a single factory consumer. However, it is possible to run a single consist from multiple sources to multiple destinations.

For example, a train loads iron ore from multiple pickup stations in order to maximize the cargo; along the way, the train visits several smelting factories before returning to the beginning of the route. Like a conveyor manifold, the train will drop as much cargo at the first consumer station as it can store in the freight terminal and move on with the rest. The second consumer station will likewise take as much of the cargo as it can. Producer stations along the way can add to the carried cargo. If the total throughput of the train can satisfy all of the consumer stations, in the long run they will all receive adequate supply once the buffers of the earlier stations fill. This is the reason why some designers set up train routes that are circular rather than point-to-point.

Conveyor Maximum Speed vs Minimum Required Speed

Here you have a choice between material latency and conveyor building material cost.

• Lower tier conveyors move material more slowly from Point A to Point B, but they are cheaper to make (i.e., use earlier tier building materials)
  
• Example: Mark 5 conveyor in use when Mark 2 is required—material moves faster across long distances but uses higher tier resources to create
  
• Late game, when aluminum materials are plentiful for building, it makes sense to upgrade conveyors to Mark 5, as this will minimize resupply delays if supply chain interruptions occur. If you do, then upgrade all branches coming from splitters to prevent output rate imbalances

--Buffering Architecture

How you buffer supply is a serious operational tradeoff. Too little storage will cause uneven utilization of machines and wasted power from fixed-output generators. Too much storage will use too much space and take unnecessary time to build and connect.

Input buffers vs Output buffers vs Double buffers

Storage containers can be placed on only the supply input, on only the production output, or on both. When an output storage container is connected (not necessarily directly) to the next stage’s input storage container, this is “double buffered” and is the most resistant to supply chain interruption.

• The first stage will continue producing outputs to storage, even if transportation to the second stage is interrupted
  
• The second stage will continue consuming inputs from storage, even if transportation from the first stage is interrupted
  
• This maximizes productivity of the whole supply chain, even when parts of it are disconnected or offline

Storage containers require floor space, so there is a tradeoff between production resilience and production footprint.

Mega storage facility vs regional storage facilities vs native factory storage facilities vs storage facilities per production line vs hybrid

Many content creators have created mega storage facilities to store every material produced in the game, some of which are connected to production lines, and some of which are terminal points for excess materials before heading to the AWESOME Sink. If you are creating a Mega Factory, then a Mega storage facility is probably the right way to go; otherwise, one of the other options may reduce your transportation costs.

Regional storage facilities are smaller, geographically dispersed versions of the mega storage facility that buffer only what is produced or consumed by that region’s factories. These make great hubs in a hub-and-spoke transportation architecture.

Factory storage facilities are the storage containers within a factory that buffer the inputs or outputs used within that factory. These can be central to the factory, or distributed across smaller groups of machines within the factory.

Storage size

Ideally, you need no storage because everything is perfectly balanced, but we rarely achieve perfect balance; therefore, storage containers are necessary to temporarily provide input materials or store output materials when the supply chain is broken.

Lean Manufacturing engineers would counsel “Just-in-Time” inventory control to avoid storage costs and to minimize the number of units that must be reworked if an error occurs. Because production rework is not a concern in Satisfactory, your goal is then only to minimize the cost of storage.

What is the right amount of storage? Start with your throughput rate, then ask how many minutes of storage you think you need. If you need T minutes of storage, and R is the rate at which supply is used, then your storage size needs to be at least T*R. How many stacks depends on the stack size S. You need at least T*R/S stacks in the container. This then determines the number and type of containers you need for storage.

Example: For ten minutes of storage at a rate of 480 per minute, I need 4800 total storage capacity. If the stack size is 100, then I need storage for 48 stacks. My solution is either to sequence two 24-stack containers, or to use one 48-stack industrial storage container.

--Alternate Recipes

Alternate recipes are another type of operational tradeoff, but one that is difficult to plan with certainty. I say "difficult", because you will eventually unlock every recipe, and if you plan to delay building a certain output until you have your preferred recipe, then your only difficulty is in finding the correct hard drive and being patient during the search.

Some alternate recipes are more efficient than baseline recipes, but present an opportunity cost by

• Drawing away resources that are better used in other recipes
  
• Requiring resource transportation from other regions that generate the resource

Some alternate recipes generate byproducts that are useful in other recipes, while others use byproducts that are generated from other recipes. This may minimize the need to bring in external resources (or as much of a particular resource, such as re-using water generated during later stages of aluminum processing during earlier stages). This may create opportunities to create additional items or more of a particular item (e.g., recycled rubber or plastic from polymer resin created during oil refinement into fuel). It also may create the need to sink byproducts to keep the production line operating.

Alternate recipes may be objectively better, measured by

• Input efficiency or rate
  
• Output rate
  
• Power consumption per output unit
  
• Building space or volume required
  
• Number of buildings required (and resources needed to build them)

The Satisfactory wiki has an analysis for every alternate recipe, though the weighted point approach can only tell you the locally optimum recipe to use.

I have been told that calculating the global optimum combination of all recipes in a production chain is currently an intractable computational problem (PhD thesis, anyone?), though the calculator at satisfactorytools.com/production does a great job optimizing even the biggest production requirements.

Which alternate recipes are available to you at any point in the game is random; therefore, it is challenging to design a long-term architecture that is flexible to both baseline and alternate recipes or a combined use of both.

Define Logical/Behavioral Architecture

Based on your overall output requirement, calculate the needed flow requirements of all resources and intermediate products using an online tool or spreadsheet.

This is perhaps the easiest part of the design process. Thanks to the hard work of the hosts of the following two web sites, the next part is completely automated:

• https://www.satisfactorytools.com/production
  
• https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/planners/production

Figure 3: Flow requirements for each item

You unlock alternate recipes as you recover hard drives, some of which can be selected by the calculator as more efficient than the base recipe if you configure the calculator to allow these recipes.

Figure 4: Flow rates and allocation

Define Physical Architecture

How many machines of each type do I need?

Using the online tool or spreadsheet, additionally calculate the number and type of machines needed (with efficiency setpoints) for each production stage.

(Satisfactory-Calculator.com only) Set the calculation options to share machines or not, to include splitters and mergers, and with the appropriate level of machinery and conveyors available.

These calculations exclude costs for conveyors and other transportation options (road, rail, air).

The Buildings tab lists all required buildings and the costs to create these buildings.

If production will be geographically distributed, you can also use the online tool or spreadsheet to calculate intermediate parts of the production chain

Figure 5: Production Line connections and flow rates

Figure 6: Items required for construction of production line

How much space will your factory use?

Next, look up the footprint and height of space required for each machine, including space for input distribution and output collection, and calculate the dimensions of your factory. This information is available on the wiki (https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Satisfactory_Wiki) in the articles for each machine.

If you use sandwich/logistical layers for distribution and collection above or below the machine floor, include this vertical space in your calculation.

Alternatively, use the tools at https://satisfactoryproductionplanner.com/dashboard which also calculates floorspace requirements for each production line and shows detailed diagrams.

How much power do I need to generate?

Use the online tools or a spreadsheet to calculate the power required for the production chain. If production will be geographically distributed, you can also use the online tool or spreadsheet to calculate intermediate parts of the production chain to get more detailed information on power requirements.

Power buildings and costs are included in the output from some online calculators. It is up to you to create your power production from resources available to you (biofuel, coal, fuel, nuclear). Remember that some power is used when generating power, so look for the net production value.

Manage complexity by aggregating machines into groups called "gangs"

Machines can be aggregated into gangs that share splitters and mergers, and optionally can also be sized to fit in an integer number of foundations.

• Use the gang as a basic building block in your factories
  
• Aggregate the space, input, output, and power attributes of the entire gang to simplify calculations
  
  • If you use sandwich layers for distribution of inputs and collection of outputs, include these in your space calculations
• Gang size is limited by min(floor(max conveyor throughput / max input rate),floor(max conveyor throughput / max output rate))
  
  • You can add one more machine and reduce its efficiency in order to produce up to the remaining conveyor capacity
• If you need less than an integer number of gangs, consider rounding up to the next whole number and build the full gang at full efficiency
  
  • Buffer the extra production (especially for crafting items), or
    
  • Reduce the efficiency setting of each machine in the last gang to reach the required resource flow of all the gangs together
    
  • Save gang layouts in blueprints, unlocked in Tier 4.

Manage complexity further by aggregating gangs into subfactories

Gangs can be aggregated into “subfactories”, which are portions of a factory that have a specific purpose

• Use the subfactory as the next larger building block in your factory
  
• A factory can have multiple subfactories of the same type
  
• A factory can have multiple subfactories of different but related types
  
• A factory can have multiple subfactories of different and un-related types
  
• Subfactories are a good way to expand a factory as global production rates need to increase (for example, as each new Project Assembly phase is unlocked)
  
• Architecturally, you can add subfactories beside existing subfactories, or add them vertically on other floors (or in some other creative way)
  
• Gangs that use Manifold/Overflow systems are easiest to aggregate into subfactories
  
• Gangs that use Balanced distribution systems must account for additional space used by splitters when gangs are combined within subfactories
  
• This is the first building block to consider where the player will walk among the gangs, and climb or descend vertical distances within the subfactory
  
• Store smaller subfactories in blueprints.
  
• Look at factories created by content creators on YouTube, and you will get ideas for how subfactories can be organized and interconnected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWTvyIYlmU
Figure 7. Expanding turbofuel production using identical subfactories added vertically

Reduce complexity further by aggregating subfactories into factories

Using subfactories as your building blocks, become an architect and decide how you want your factory to be laid out horizontally and vertically within the environment:

Survey the terrain, taking note of

• Elevation and elevation changes (slopes vs cliffs) among biomes
  
• Ground clearance (rocks, trees, bushes)
  
• Size and location of flat areas
  
• Primitive roads
  
• Potential locations for running ground or elevated roads and rail
  
• Potential locations for running ground or elevated conveyors or pipes and power lines
  
• Location, type, and purity of each resource node
  
• Location of water and potential number of extractors within each body of water
  
• Location, type, and number of hostile alien life
  
• Location, type, number, and wandering pattern of benign alien life

Consider the following as well:

• How will subfactories be oriented with respect to each other and the world?
  
• How will materials flow to and from each subfactory, and aggregately in and out of the factory?
  
• Where will walls, floors, and hallways separate subfactories
  
• Where will doors, conveyor windows and floor holes, and pipe holes interconnect subfactories
  
• Where will the player walk among the subfactories, and climb or descend vertical distances
  
• How will power be distributed to each machine
  
• Will you use power switches to isolate each subfactory or the factory as a whole

A great example of subfactories being integrated into a larger factory is by Createin. Note also the excellent use of architectural elements to make each subfactory distinct, allowing a visitor to easily tour the factory and understand how it is organized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giPgZ6_6tAg&ab_channel=Createin

Search YouTube with the keywords “industrial architecture” to learn a lot more, because this is part science and part art. TotalXclipse has an excellent video in which he discusses architectural design. He has experimented with a wide variety of styles inspired by real-world architecture, finding a way to replicate them using in-game materials and shapes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ujAFCWGoQ&t=14s

Now connect your factories to each other with transportation

Among factories, become a transportation engineer and decide how you want material to flow among your factories.

• In early game, tractors become available. These are best for short-haul and small stack count.
  
• In mid game, trucks become available. These are best for short- to medium-distance haul and medium stack count.
  
• In late game, trains become available. These are best for long-haul and very large stack count.
  
• In late game, drones become available. These are best for long-haul and small stack count.

--Online Resources

There are many online resources available to you without cost to help you design your factories both logically and physically. This is a short catalog to help you find help.

Official Wiki

• Wiki for Release 1.0+[satisfactory.wiki.gg]
  
• Early Access Version[satisfactory.fandom.com]

Online Production Calculators

• https://satisfactorytools.com
  
• https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/planners/production
  
• https://satisfactoryproductionplanner.com/dashboard
  
• https://calculatory.ovh/
  
• https://satisfactory-logistics.xyz/factories

Online Power Calculators

• https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/planners/power
  
• https://satisfactoryproductionplanner.com/power

Shared Blueprints

• https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/blueprints

Shared Megaprints

• https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/megaprints

Interactive Map

• https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/interactive-map

Define Verification Approach: Integration Points

Define Integration Points

This is a bottom up approach: test smaller assemblies before connecting them into larger assemblies

• Test each machine before you test the gang of machines
  
• Test each gang of machines before you test the subfactory
  
• Test the subfactories before you test the factory
  
• Test the factory before you output to other factories via transportation methods
  
• Test the transportation methods between/among factories

Suggestion: Temporarily flow produced items to an Awesome Sink to prevent production line from backing up while you test it. If you use a storage container and a Smart Splitter, you can fill the container until it is full, then pass the overflow to the Sink; this also sets up an output buffer for once you have the next production stage set up and are ready to feed it.

Define Verification Approach: Test Procedures

For each machine

• Check input flow into the machine
  
  • Input material on the conveyor or lift?
    
  • Conveyor or lift is connected to the machine?
    
  • Incorrect material is not at the conveyor/lift input to the machine, blocking the correct material?
    
  • Input material is buffering in the machine?
• Check that machine is powered and not manually set to standby
  
• Check the efficiency setting of the machine
  
• Machine is cycling, decreasing inputs and (maybe visibly) increasing outputs?
  
• Check output from the machine
  
  • Output material is buffering in the machine?
    
  • Output material is on the conveyor/lift?
• For machines that use or create liquids
  
  • Pipe is connected to the machine?
    
  • Correct fluid is in the pipe?
    
  • Input pipe has sufficient volume and flow?
    
  • Output pipe is not too full to receive new flow?
• Check the indicator light on top of the machine. Check https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Indicator_Light for meaning

For each gang

• Check the distribution flows into and out of each machine
  
  • Conveyors/Lifts connect machines to splitters/mergers?
    
  • Conveyors/Lifts flow in the correct direction?
    
  • Material is not flowing (too fast or) too slow?
• For gangs that use or create liquids
  
  • Pipe is connected to each machine?
    
  • Correct fluid is in the pipe?
    
  • Input pipe has sufficient volume and flow for the entire gang?
    
  • Output pipe is not too full to receive new flow?
    
  • See also “The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual” by @McGalleon#8273 for possible design flaws (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view)

For each subfactory

• Check the distribution flows into and out of each gang
  
  • Conveyors/Lifts connect gangs to splitters/mergers and wall openings (if used)?
    
  • Conveyors/Lifts flow in the correct direction?
    
  • Material is not flowing (too fast or) too slow?
• For subfactories that use or create liquids
  
  • Pipe is connected to each gang?
    
  • Correct fluid is in each pipe?
    
  • Input pipe has sufficient volume and flow for the entire subfactory?
    
  • Output pipe is not too full to receive new flow?
    
  • See also “The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual” by @McGalleon#8273 for possible design flaws (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view)

For each factory

• Check the distribution flows into and out of each subfactory
  
  • Conveyors/Lifts connect subfactories to splitters/mergers and wall openings (if used)?
    
  • Conveyors/Lifts flow in the correct direction?
    
  • Material is not flowing (too fast or) too slow?
• For factories that use or create liquids
  
  • Pipe is connected to each (appropriate) subfactory?
    
  • Correct fluid is in each pipe?
    
  • Input pipe(s) have sufficient volume and flow for the entire factory?
    
  • Output pipe(s) are not too full to receive new flow?
    
  • See also “The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual” by @McGalleon#8273 for possible design flaws (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view)
• Check the distribution flows in and out of the factory
  
  • Conveyors/Lifts connect the factory to external sources and destinations?
    
  • Conveyors/Lifts flow in the correct direction?
    
  • Material is not flowing (too fast or) too slow?

For each transportation method

• Conveyors/Lifts
  
  • Conveyors/Lifts flow in the correct direction?
    
  • Material is not flowing (too fast or) too slow?
• Pipes
  
  • Correct fluid is in each pipe?
    
  • Input pipe(s) have sufficient volume and flow?
    
  • Output pipe(s) are not too full to receive new flow?
    
  • See also “The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual” by @McGalleon#8273 for possible design flaws (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view)
• Tractors/Trucks
  
  • Routes are established between each source and destination?
    
  • Stations have acceptable fuel in the refueling buffer?
    
  • Stations are connected to resource producers and consumers?
    
  • Vehicles are not interfering with one another?
    
  • Vehicles have enough fuel to complete the journey with a reserve for routing errors?
    
  • Vehicles have sufficient time at each stop to pick up enough items (on average across multiple trips)?
    
  • Vehicles have sufficient time at each stop to drop off all carried items?
    
  • Check the indicator light on top of the station. Check https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Indicator_Light for meaning
• Trains
  
  • Routes are established between each source and destination?
    
  • Stations have freight platforms which are connected to resource producers and consumers?
    
  • Freight platforms are set correctly to load or unload?
    
  • Rails properly utilize signals and trains are not interfering with one another?
    
  • Trains have sufficient number and type of each freight car to pick up enough items (on average across multiple trips) from each station?
    
  • Train timetables include only desired items on the Load/Unload control window for each station?
    
  • Trains have sufficient engines for the number of freight cars in the train?
    
  • Check the indicator light on top of the station. Check https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Indicator_Light for meaning
• Drones
  
  • Routes are established between each source and destination?
    
  • Stations are connected to resource producers and consumers?
    
  • Stations have batteries in the refueling buffer?
    
  • Check the indicator light on top of the station
    
  • Check https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Indicator_Light for meaning

For each power generator

• Check input flow into the machine
  
  • Input material on the conveyor or lift?
    
  • Conveyor or lift is connected to the machine?
    
  • Incorrect material is not at the conveyor/lift input to the machine, blocking the correct material?
    
  • Input material is buffering in the machine?
    
  • Pipe is connected to the machine?
    
  • Correct fluid is in the pipe?
    
  • Input pipe has sufficient volume and flow?
    
  • Output pipe is not too full to receive new flow?
    
  • See also “The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual” by @McGalleon#8273 for possible design flaws (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view)
• Check that machine is powered and not manually set to standby
  
• Check the efficiency setting of the machine
  
• Machine is cycling, decreasing inputs?
  
• Check the indicator light on top of the machine. Check https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Indicator_Light for meaning

Conclusion

If you made it this far, then you now comprehend how much work your brain is doing when you play Satisfactory. Perhaps you should get a paycheck for all that work!

This guide only scratches the surface of what systems engineering activities might be done, because the complexity of Satisfactory, while considerable for a single player or small team, is very small compared to the actual complexity of real systems.

Real life doesn't give us the answers from the beginning or so easily as when unlocking Tiers. The right answers and even the right questions must be discovered, and there is always a chance that we will answer incorrectly and spend billions of dollars making a mistake. This is why real systems cost so much money, and why systems engineering, while a costly part of development, is essential for preventing the entire effort from being a mistake.

Enjoy the creative, no-cost environment of Satisfactory. Imagine if you had to build what you create, you would definitely want to prepare it all within the digital environment. Satisfactory is a marvelous sandbox for exploring ideas and solving problems, for making mistakes and learning from them. I would pay good money to really build much of what I see created by thoughtful content creators on YouTube. They may not have formally applied systems engineering in their workflow, but they did a lot of it anyway and with great success.

If you like Satisfactory and are looking for a career, you might consider Digital Engineering (a new way of doing Systems Engineering), Industrial Engineering, or Architecture, all of which are integral to being successful in Satisfactory.

If you like this guide, please give it a thumbs up. If it can be improved, please let me know, and also let me know if you would like to collaborate on the edits. I appreciate constructive feedback.

[wizard1073]

@Nef you are welcome to make those diagrams! Lol!! Did you know ChatGPT can generate those?

[Nef]

Needs More MBSE :V

[AshitakaSan]

As of right now, this guide has earned over 125,000 steam points. Getting paid gets you paid.

[Leg0Gengar]

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[Barboura]

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[Anemos]

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[Timmy the Tooth]

@petsackboy Atari had home systems and pong in the 70s, not just in arcade style consoles. Watch High Score, it's a great video game history documentary on Netflix.

[PetSackboy]

Cool! Also I don't know if I am wrong but as far as I am aware, computer games were not made in the 70s, unless if your talking about some arcade game, like pong.

[Timmy the Tooth]

Hey Awesome, when something is too high brow for you to understand, just move on bud. It makes you look slightly less of an idiot than commenting on it. :)
Also, your 'local gp' would refer you to a specialist for OCD, as gp means 'general practitioner.'

[AwesomeSause]

too long didnt read check your local gp for signs of ocd