Factory settings
These apply to every workstation unless you override a line in Advanced mode.
Factory hours
to
24 h/day
Set it the same way as the schedule in BizMan. Workers must be scheduled for every hour you want production.
Purchasing agent skill
%
Import discount = 25% × skill (100% agent = 25% off). BizMan already shows the discounted price, so match this to your agent to compare.
Public prices multiplier
× base price
Your save's Economy setting (New Game → "Public prices"). 1.00 on default difficulty. Raw factory materials ignore the MarketInsider index, so this and the agent discount are the only things that move their price.
Weekly order buffer
% on top of a full week
Imports arrive once a week (Monday 08:00), so the target must cover 7 days. Buffer covers price-index swings and skipped hours.
Urgent order surcharge
%
Default difficulty is +75% for importers. Only used to show what a mid-week emergency order would cost.
Shift length for staffing
Employees can work at most 12 h/day. "Minimum" staffing uses 12 h; "recommended" uses this.
Workstations
One workstation = one assembly machine + its production machines + one worker per hour. Add a line per product.
Quick start:
How the numbers are calculated (from the 1.0 game code)
- Output per hour =
round(recipe max/hour × (skill ÷ 2 + 50) ÷ 100)— Recipe.GetScaledOutputAmount. A 100% worker hits the max, a 0% worker makes half. - Ingredients per hour are the recipe amounts, every hour a worker is at the station, regardless of skill — FactoryBusinessSimulator.PlanIngredientsForRatio. They only drop when stock, output space or a "Produce up to" cap limits the hour.
- Hours: production is simulated hour by hour; an hour only runs if the factory is open and a worker is scheduled at that workstation. Employees max out at 12 h/day.
- Imports arrive once a week: every Monday at 08:00 (DeliveryHelper.GetNextDeliveryDay); contracts lock Sunday 20:00. With Smart Delivery on, the "# target" is the stock level topped up each Monday, so it has to cover the whole week. An Urgent Order lands the next morning with a surcharge (default +75%).
- Import price = item wholesale price × "Public prices" difficulty multiplier × (1 − 0.25 × purchasing-agent skill) — ItemHelper.GetWholesalePrice, ImportPartnership.GetDiscount. BizMan shows the per-unit price with the discount applied and the total for the amount ordered.
- Raw materials don't fluctuate. The MarketInsider import index only exists for items with retail demand; raw ingredients have none, so their index is fixed at 1.0. The exceptions are Bag of Lettuce and Bag of Tomatoes (also store products): index = 80 ÷ (avg demand × 1.2) ± random(−0.1…+0.2), clamped 0.5–1.3, minus 0.25 × (exported ÷ weekly limit). The four pier importers also have shortages/backorders disabled, and raw ingredients from them have no weekly order limit.
- Storage: a pallet shelf holds 60 boxes; box sizes per item come from the item data.
- "Runs out in" in BizMan assumes 24 h/day consumption:
floor(stock ÷ (amount × 24)).