problem with uneven manufacturing

[milty111]

Hello there.
Using the most current version of Capitalism Labs 3.5.20

I'm running into a problem with my manufacturing in that regardless how symmetrical my factory layout is, the manufacture modules seem to favor the left side of the window with a decrement in module utility as the modules move to the right. For example, my layout contains 3 manufacture modules for desktop computers. They are situated in the middle line going horizontally. The leftmost module will produce at 100% and the one on the right 0-1%. All the purchased components are connected properly. This messes up the volume of my shipping to the retail outlet as well as training. I seem to recall this same problem with the original Capitalism.

MILT_006.zip

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[eleaza]

Because the right side of the sales unit is not utilized at all. And I believe after a patch fixing utilization max, there is a left to right and top to bottom priority (when there are multiple sales units). In any case, the root cause of this is simply due to the downstream demand in each factory doesn't require all 3 manufacturing units at this training level.

Factory_manufacturing_utilization.jpg (194.61 KiB) Viewed 2246 times

You can add a warehouse in between, and see the utilization start to rise in every manufacturing unit (for a while at least, before the warehouse storage space run out). See the attachment. And personally I feel you just need 1 large factory to meet the demand of desktop computer in this city instead of 3 medium ones.

[milty111]

Thank you very much for the almost instant reply! I'm an old Trevor Chan fan from Reach for the Stars on the 3 1/4" disks and been playing some form of Capitalism since it first came out around 20 years back. Still so much to learn. I'm still a bit clueless as to the ratio of output between factory sizes. I searched a bit but was unsuccessful. Any further information would be much appreciated.

[eleaza]

Thank you very much for the almost instant reply! I'm an old Trevor Chan fan from Reach for the Stars on the 3 1/4" disks and been playing some form of Capitalism since it first came out around 20 years back. Still so much to learn. I'm still a bit clueless as to the ratio of output between factory sizes. I searched a bit but was unsuccessful. Any further information would be much appreciated.

There have been a lot of changes throughout out the years in different versions, but some basics stay the same I believe. The most basic ratio is for each manufacturing unit, the production capacity (at full utilization) between large - medium - small factories is 4 - 2 - 1. (i.e. large is twice as medium, medium twice as small, and if their level is the same).

In your case, there are 3 medium factories with 3 manufacturing units, a total of 9. But only 2 out of 3 are workings, hence in effect only 6 medium manufacturing units functioning, which equals to 3 large manufacturing ones at work. This is the reason why I estimate one large factory is enough here. However the total overhead and salary cost in one large factory is cheaper than 2 medium ones combined, hence when the demand only required a large factory to fulfill, always go for the large one, instead of 2 medium ones (interestingly I believe the cost of medium one isn't cheaper compared to 2 small ones, so start with small one if the budget is very tight, or demand is very low)

Another interesting thing is the throughput between manufacturing unit and output unit. I think it's always 2 to 1 since the original Capitalism. 1 sales unit can handle 2 manufacturing units throughput. So in your layout, even if 3 manufacturing units are fully utilized, the 2 output sale units will have certain amount of idle time (when it is freshly built at level 1). But with training, over time the sales units will eventually reach level 9, and have higher throughput compare to level 1, and manufacturing units usually level up much slower, due to their level downgraded regularly when new technologies are applied, hence in practice this layout will reach certain equilibrium in the long run when they are constantly at high utilization, where sales units eventually reach lv 9 and stay that way, with manufacturing units floating around lv 5 to lv 7 or 8 (if tech update cycle is like 2 or 3 years, a longer update cycle like 5 or 10 years will let manufacturing reach level 9 eventually, but have several months to a year of "retraining" period every time a new tech applied)

As to how much a city's market will demand in total, it is very difficult to estimate, and is very complicated with various factors involved, as well as varied with different products, city population, overall rating, local competitor rating, etc., etc, and really changes a lot between different versions, and DLC (even with different mods). The best guide I know is to be flexible and not afraid to convert factories to different uses, and tune them over time. Start not with full layout, but gradually, test the demand starting from one manufacturing unit, and leave space at the right place in the 3x3 for future adding more if the demand is not met. And use warehouses wisely to buffer products, warehouse is designed to ease fluctuation, and can help reaching higher training level faster and easier.

[milty111]

Thank you once again. Your explanation is very helpful.

[GnoSiS]

That's some great info right here.

One question: is the upkeep of the firm flat regardless of the mount of layout squares used or is it calculated on the number and type of used units?

This is especially important to know when starting out in survival with small factories and farms.

[eleaza]

That's some great info right here.

One question: is the upkeep of the firm flat regardless of the mount of layout squares used or is it calculated on the number and type of used units?

This is especially important to know when starting out in survival with small factories and farms.

There are at least 2 types of the major "fixed cost" in a firm, the "salary" and the "overhead" (ads and training cost are easy to see how much, and write off is one-time thing when you change layout or clear stockpile)

The "overhead" cost is a "fixed cost", but isn't "flat" per say. I think in the core game it "fluctuates" depend on the Real Wage Rate of the city where it's located. (like in a 80 RWR city, the overhead cost of the same type of firm is doubled to a 40 RWR city). In the CES DLC, I think it starts at 1/10 of the upkeep compared to the core game when it situated in a new city, and increased over time if the city has more population, better QoL, etc. Also the formula changed a bit after a patch I believe, so I am not to sure what exactly it is right now in CES DLC. Maybe after I tested more 4.3.xx we'll know more. But in general, "overhead" cost is relatively simple and has nothing to do with the layout.

The "salary" part is where different layouts affecting the overall "cost". Different types of units has different number of workers, like in the core game, a large factory's manufacturing unit requires 24 workers, medium factory manufacturing is 16, small is 8, IIRC, Purchase unit #workers for large-medium-small factory are 8-4-2, and sales are 16-8-4 (the manufacturing ratio of 24-16-8 is the reason why large factory has lower "fixed cost" per product with the same layout, it has twice the productivity but just 1.5 times workers). Obviously the salary cost depends heavily on how many and what kinds of units in the layout. (and BTW the overhead cost is proportional to the worker salary, like a large factory's overhead cost is equal to 90 workers' wages, medium one is 50 times, small one is 25, this is another place where large factory is more economical)

Hence we can calculate the overhead and salary cost part of the "fixed cost" in the unit of #worker salary. In a factory layout for 3 types of source materials product, it has total 4 purchase, 3 manufacturing, 2 sales units (like the original poster's desktop computer factory layout). A large factory's overhead and salary cost would equal to (90 + 4 x 8 + 3 x 24 + 2 x 16) = 226 times of one worker's local real wage rate salary. A medium factory is (50 + 4 x 4 + 3 x 16 + 2 x 8) = 130 times, and a small one with the same layout is 65 times. And a default 100 RWR salary per worker is $2,000 (before inflation adjust, so a 80 RWR city will have $1,600 salary per worker). You can calculate the rest. But remember this is for the core game, in the CES DLC, the initial overhead is 1/10, and the number of workers of each type varied over different factors and different patch versions, the best way is still checking the individual firm's income statement, and you don't have to calculate on your own, the financial report is supposed to help you with the tally.