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. Each chart shows all materials used and items produced, as well as byproducts, on a per-minute basis (assuming ideal efficiency). However, the chart does not account for any possible technology or building upgrades that might speed up certain stages of production (e.g. using a Plane Smelter instead of the assumed Arc Smelter).
Basics
| Stage 1 | Stage 2 | |
|---|---|---|
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Raw Materials
The Stage 1 column simply shows the raw materials necessary per minute to maintain full-rate production.
Production Stages
Each stage beyond Stage 1 represents a set of production facilities that process the materials from the previous stage, and the output of those facilities. In this example, Stage 2 shows that 1 Arc Smelter processes 60 Stone into 60 Stone Bricks per minute.
Final Stage
The right-most stage in the chart represents the final step in producing the end product. This shows that no further processing is needed, and all of the listed products must be stored, distributed, or otherwise used up, or else the production line will eventually become clogged. This is particularly important for recipes that produce multiple outputs, as all of those outputs must be dealt with in a timely fashion.
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 a backwards arrow indicating 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 from the output must be recycled back into those 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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Byproducts
Several production processes produce byproducts which are not used in further stages of the production line. In these cases, the byproducts 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 byproduct of Stage 2, so it is simply passed on and shows up in the final stage, requiring some form of distribution and use.
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 Basic Example,by multiplying by 10, 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 Basic 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 Arc Smelter cannot be reduced and thus will spend most of the time idle,