Talk:Factory/@comment-50.24.129.229-20200119002159

The Factory is amazing for one thing: Parallel Processing. And at this task... it is unparalelled.

Instead of putting in a big order for, say, 100 Steel Sheets, you instead put in 10x orders for 10 Steel Sheets each. Congratulations, you've just multiplied your machine production speed by a factor of TEN for cutting, weaving, and smelting operations and by by SIX for grinders and blenders. This is in addition to the increased rate of production that the Factory normally provides.

Fuel efficiency is also enormously huge. Each piece of wood runs for 2.5 hours. For the ENTIRE FACTORY. That's the same amount of fuel consumption for a single Fire-Powered Generator running two machines, while the Factory can run TWENTY, even before upgrades. So that's a tenfold increase in fuel efficiency from Fire-Powered Generators, which is itself a fivefold increase in fuel efficiency from normal Furnaces.

As soon as this building unlocks, get it. For raw materials and subcombine production, it has no peer. It takes a bit of getting used to, however as the GUI is a bit... busy.

Also, if you have the Artisan skill, the Factory will NOT take this discount into consideration when crafting. Therefore, if you have this skill, and wish to take advantage of it, you will want to primarily use your Factory for Smelting, Cutting, Skyver'ing, Grinding, and Blending, then take the results to your Workbench for crafting. However, even in this case, the ability to queue up crafting orders in parallel is extremely useful, and you should still absolutely get a Factory as soon as it becomes available.