A Production Progression Chart is a visual representation of the stages involved in production of an item from the base materials through the final product. A chart is based on the material used and items produced nominally per minute at ideal efficiency, but not accounting for upgrades in technology or buildings. By-products are included in the final output.
Basics
| Stage 1 | Stage 2 | |
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Raw Materials
The Stage 1 column simply shows the input raw materials necessary to maintain full-rate production. By totaling the sum of all materials listed in the first column, the user can know how much supply is required to set up a full-rate production factory to produce the end product. In Basics Example above, it lists 60 Stone, so the user knows they need to maintain a supply of 60 stone per minute to their Stone Brick factory to maintain full-rate production.
Production Stages
Each further stage shows a production facility and resulting output. The quantities listed represent what can be achieved in one minute if the building receives all of the inputs listed in the previous stage. In Basics Example above, it shows that 1 Smelter can produce 60 Stone Bricks per minute if it is provided uninterrupted supply of 60 Stone per minute.
Final Stage
The right-most stage in the chart represents the final step in producing the end product. While it is functionally no different than other production stages, all of the listed products must be stored or distributed at this point to avoid clogging the production line.
Multiple-ingredient stages
For many production stages, multiple ingredients are required to make a component or end product. In these cases, multiple rows in one stage will combine into one cell, indicating that all of the first stage components are required for the next stage of production. In the example below, Refined Oil, Stone, and Water are all required to produce Sulfuric Acid. Note that Stone and Water required no processing in Stage 2 and simply are passed on to Stage 3 without change, hence the arrow in their row.
| Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
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Special situations
Recycling
There are some cases where some output items need to be recycled to an earlier stage in the production line. To indicate this in the chart, the recycled product is listed below the regular production, with an arrow to indicate where it is recycled into the line. In the example below, in Stage 3 the 2 oil refineries produce 30 Energetic Graphite and 90 Hydrogen per minute, but 45 Hydrogen must be recycled into the 2 Oil Refineries (along with the 30 Refined Oil and 15 Hydrogen from Stage 2) to maintain production. This leaves 30 Energetic Graphite and 45 Hydrogen as the final product available for distribution.
| Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
|---|---|---|
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By-products
Several production processes produce by-products which are not used in further stages of the production line. In these cases, the by-products are shown through to the end of the chart so the user can see at the end the quantity of these that must be distributed. This is important to avoid clogging. In the Multi-source example earlier, Hydrogen is a by-product of Stage 2, and so the Hydrogen produced there is simply passed on and shows up in the final stage as needing distribution.
Tips and tricks
Scaling
Charts are generally listed at the lowest denomination which provides full efficiency. To scale up the quantity, a user can simply multiply all quantities of items and buildings by the appropriate integer to get the output they desire. In the Basics Example, simply multiply by 10, and a factory of 10 Smelters can produce 600 Stone Brick per minute if supplied with 600 Stone per minute.
Scaling down is more difficult, as it will generally lead to inefficiency and sometimes extra items at certain stages that will have to be disposed of to avoid clogging. In the Basics Example above, cutting to 10% of the listed production can be done by only supplying 6 stone per minute to produce 6 stone bricks, but the single smelter cannot be reduced, and thus the smelter will spend most of the time not working.