Big Ambitions: running a factory

A factory sits on top of your import logistics. You need everything from Importing and delivery — the warehouse, drivers, purchasing manager and logistics manager — plus production machines and factory workers. If you have no supply chain yet, read that page first.

First thing to know — you cannot sell what you produce to other businesses or to wholesalers. It is only for supplying your own stores.

Whether you need a factory at all depends on the item. A community post from November 2025 reports that after a patch every sellable good could be imported, so a factory is not required to operate. Check your target item in the current 1.0 purchase price and importer list first, then compare importing against producing on cost, staff and space.

1. Decide what to make first

The order matters. What you make decides how many machines you need, and that decides the floor area of the factory. One line of french fries fits a small unit, but if you try to squeeze a multi-machine item into a small warehouse and run out of room, you have to find another building.

Which machines an item needs is in the factory recipes. In game, the same information is under Factory Recipes in the F1 help.

2. Rent a warehouse and set it as a factory

A factory goes into a warehouse building. Foot traffic does not matter here. Look at size, the number of vehicle bays and the internal layout instead.

The warehouse blocks sit above the piers in the Garment District, Lower Manhattan and Murray Hill. Turn on the filter in the Voogle map and they show up in brown.

Once you have rented or bought it, remember to start a new business and set the type to Factory. Skip that and it will not work as a factory.

3. Machines and shelves

Where to buy them

There is exactly one place that sells factory machines: Factory Supply Depot 2 25th Street, in Industry City.

The first order has to be placed in person with the manager during opening hours. After that you can order by phone and it arrives the next day on a factory delivery pallet. Carrying machines and shelves yourself is painful, so use the phone.

Machines are expensive. Check prices and what each one produces beforehand by filtering the furniture & appliances list to Factory Supply Depot, and save yourself a wasted trip.

What the machines do

Place a machine and you see a blue arrow and an orange arrow.

• Blue — the input point where materials go in
• Orange — the output point where finished goods come out

Machines that make complex items have several inputs, up to five.

Storage shelves

You need somewhere to put materials and finished goods. Use pallet shelves.

• Pallet shelf — 60 boxes
• Storage shelf — 16 boxes

4. Factory workers

Someone has to man the input and output stations. With no worker, nothing is produced.

Hire at Anderson Recruitment 16 5th Avenue. After hiring, drag them onto the input/output station slots in BizMan → Schedule.

Skill is meaningless for factory workers. A highly skilled hire performs exactly the same and only costs more per hour. Hire the cheapest.

5. Sourcing materials

Materials come in by import. In practice four companies cover a factory.

Contracting and the automatic reorder settings work exactly as in Importing and delivery. Auto-restock runs on a 1-day, 3-day or 7-day cycle.

6. Designing a production line

Take french fries as an example.

1. French Fries are made by the Automated Frying Machine from Raw Fries.
2. But Raw Fries cannot be bought from a store or an importer. You have to make them.
3. Raw Fries come from the Food Cutting Machine using Russet Potatoes, which Lunar Tide Shipments sells.

So you need two machines. What matters next is how you connect them.

Leave the two machines separate and each needs its own input and output station — four workers. Join them into one line with a conveyor and it is one input and one output, so two workers. That halves the wage bill.

Balancing throughput

Machines differ in speed and output. If you do not match them, one side idles or backs up.

• Food Cutting Machine — 2 per 5 minutes = 24 per hour
• Automated Frying Machine — 1 per 8 minutes = 7.5 consumed per hour

Two fryers consume 15 per hour. 24 − 15 = 9 left over. Go to three and they consume 22.5, and 22.5 < 24, so it still keeps up. In other words one cutting machine to three fryers is the sweet spot.

Setting supply just barely above consumption keeps the conveyor full, so the line never runs dry. The other way round, the fryers sit idle.

A splitter divides 50:50 by default, but sends more to whichever side has room when the other is full. On a long line, conveyor travel time enters the calculation and gaps appear easily, so it helps to fill the conveyor with goods before starting the machines.

7. Getting finished goods to your stores

Producing is not the end. You need a delivery driver and vehicle to move goods from the factory to your stores, and a logistics manager to plan the route. The setup is identical to the warehouse — see steps 2 and 6 of Importing and delivery.

Common questions