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What are the biggest bottlenecks you find in industry?
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Bernard Quinn
Doomheim
#1 - 2016-07-08 22:07:51 UTC
I've finally gotten my supply lines sorted out and functinging really well, but as I continue to play around with manufacturing, research, invention, etc, I find not a single new bottleneck, but different things being bottlenecks at different times.

I try to time things out, but some times I'll be short on manufacturing jobs, other times I'll be short on things to manufacture, some times it's not enough copies.

I'm trying to fiddle with my lines a bit more, seeing if I can't better-plan for what's going on, but it's slow-going. I'll get there eventually!

So I'm curious, as much more experienced industrialists, what do you find that some of your biggest bottlenecks are? What are the things you find you have the most difficult time balancing?

I'm not looking for advice so much as I'm just curious as to what types of experiences more experienced people have.
Tipa Riot
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2016-07-09 04:38:25 UTC  |  Edited by: Tipa Riot
The bottleneck for me is ... Tritanium. It's a pain to haul that many I need around.

Regarding time balance, my T2 production usually runs in 24h cycles with one day lead-in using 10 slots. This means I produce intermediate products on day one, and the final one on day two plus the intermediate for day three. This allows me to switch/stop production quickly depending on the market situation.

I'm my own NPC alt.
Knitram Relik
State War Academy
Caldari State
#3 - 2016-07-09 05:31:47 UTC
For me it's finding a source for materials. I can't sit in Jita and .01 buy orders all day. I'm trying to network but so far, no luck.

"The problem with quotes on the internet is that it's really hard to verify their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln
Zad Murrard
Frozen Dawn Inc
Frozen Dawn Alliance
#4 - 2016-07-09 07:48:45 UTC
Lack of time. Others are relatively easy to handle.

Slots -> get more maxed chars.
Not enough copies -> make sure you always have more than enough copies available.
Materials if they exist -> alts/clones & use contracts to haul them, make sure you always have extra materials in your base.
Things to manufacture -> expand your portfolio of possibilities before hand.
Do Little
Bluenose Trading
#5 - 2016-07-09 11:47:05 UTC
Industry scales well with additional characters. The current CCP promotion that includes 90 days free multiple character training is an ideal way to get a new industry ALT up to speed. This addresses the issue of insufficient slots.

After you've been playing for a while, you'll probably find that 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your products and one of your markets is consistently the most profitable. I've reduced my offering to a dozen T2 modules sold through 1 market. I'm selling more at higher margins with a lot less effort. I have a few alternates - Eve markets are cyclical and I don't chase prices into the bottom half of the cycle, I'll build an alternate product for a while and wait for the price to rebound.

Running out of material is generally a good thing - it means you underestimated sales! When it happens a blockade runner is your best friend - at 8AU/sec a run to the closest trade hub shouldn't take long.
Sir SmashAlot
The League of Extraordinary Opportunists
Intergalactic Conservation Movement
#6 - 2016-07-09 18:10:12 UTC
Working Capital. Everything else is trivial.
Bernard Quinn
Doomheim
#7 - 2016-07-09 19:01:00 UTC
Do Little wrote:

Running out of material is generally a good thing - it means you underestimated sales! When it happens a blockade runner is your best friend - at 8AU/sec a run to the closest trade hub shouldn't take long.

I tried running a Blockade Runner, but it got to be a big mess. I was more panicky because I know that people will often gank a BR just because it's there for the gamble. I ended up switching over to a DST and haven't looked back. Slower, sure, but since I'm only moving ~500 mil at any one time, being able to hit 150k EHP on a cold tank (and almost 250k on a heated tank) is really refreshing for me.
Do Little
Bluenose Trading
#8 - 2016-07-10 11:23:31 UTC
A Blockade Runner in highsec can be buffer tanked to withstand "blockade runner roulette". I've survived alpha shots from 2 Tornadoes on the Jita dock. You don't need a propulsion module for hauling in highsec - fit an extra extender and a DCU in one of your low slots. My normal fit has 25K EHP and 10K cargo capacity. That said, the DST is also an excellent choice but slow - if the cargo will fit, I choose the BR and I generally only fly a DST if I need to haul ships or a large load of minerals.

You can also create insta-dock and undock bookmarks. In Jita I use the Caldari Business Tribunal station at 4-4 as an intermediate waypoint, it's seems to be reasonably well aligned with the trade hub - I always land inside the docking ring on arrival and warp quickly, if not instantly, on undock.
Echo Mande
#9 - 2016-07-12 11:21:38 UTC
One headache I have is sourceing materials at a reasonable price. Buying materials through market orders etc.

The biggest headache I have however is keeping track of money flows. Tracking how much money I spend on each project in terms of materials costs, income, broker fees, taxes and fabrication costs (T1, T2 component and T2) is a large headache and isn't helped by a lack if wallet tagging ability and lack of coupling between market orders, wallet entries and transactions.

Wallet remarks everywhere
Zad Murrard
Frozen Dawn Inc
Frozen Dawn Alliance
#10 - 2016-07-13 11:36:13 UTC
Echo Mande wrote:
One headache I have is sourceing materials at a reasonable price. Buying materials through market orders etc.

The biggest headache I have however is keeping track of money flows. Tracking how much money I spend on each project in terms of materials costs, income, broker fees, taxes and fabrication costs (T1, T2 component and T2) is a large headache and isn't helped by a lack if wallet tagging ability and lack of coupling between market orders, wallet entries and transactions.


Buying materials through buy orders sounds like a trading issue rather than industry bottleneck. That is, unless for some reason it is not possible to sell the amount of items bought as such.

For the 2nd item it could work if one uses separate corp wallet for each activity. Then using program/spreadsheet one could import corp wallet history (if there is endpoint for this?) and see how much each char contributed to each wallet and create what ever report is wanted. If there are so many activities that you run out of corp wallets, well tough luck :]
Kaivarian Coste
It Came From Thera
#11 - 2016-07-13 14:05:41 UTC
If you're only profitable because of buy orders, you're better off just flipping those materials on the market.
Circinus
Doomheim
#12 - 2016-07-13 19:25:32 UTC
Miners do not reply when I convo them for a mineral contract. I just wonder why..
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#13 - 2016-07-15 05:10:07 UTC
Tipa Riot wrote:
The bottleneck for me is ... Tritanium. It's a pain to haul that many I need around.

Oh gawd please don't. The nightmares!

The main reason why I own 4 freighters, and chose Charon over the rest.

However, once hauled, I tend to find bottlenecks to be production time and assembly lines. To make things go faster, one can add more assembly lines, but with only 10-11 per character, that fills accounts fast. All my characters can do at least basic manufacturing and research, and I have 4 accounts.