Help with Warehouse Logistics

[TheOscar]

Hi,
Is there any guidance or help on utilizing warehouses to improve logistics? How am I able to use WHs the best?
I usually play with a COO, managing all factory, retail, and WHs. Max share target and Max freight concern. I prefer COO to order from the warehouse. Internal sales are always on, and internal items are sold at cost. Low Supply tolerance at zero.

I’m on 11.0.37, but only for a short amount of time, most of the below was from 11.0.35 I believe.

Here’s my save: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nakD7N ... sp=sharing

CPU Warehousing
Currently, I'm having an issue where CPUs are in such demand that it feels like I can't keep up. Factories are having issues finding enough CPUs, so I’m thinking warehouse may be a solution. I keep adding CPU factories, but the warehouse does not necessarily switch to pull from the new factory. I think the CPU factory must build enough stock before a customer draws from it. I fear that a tablet factory or other is pulling stock before the WH. This causes desktop and tablet factories to switch from one CPU factory until all stock is depleted and then go on to the following CPU factory until that is depleted. There is no balance, just all or nothing, and the WH can’t get inventory. I think this shows up as revenue in a zig-zag pattern.

Possibly related post:
I found a post of a user having issues with the COO not preferring WHs even when set to prefer warehouse. Not sure if that was resolved, it seems from the conversation that the player had to set the price at the WH to be artificially low compared to factories to push the COO to choose the WH.
viewtopic.php?t=9838&hilit=warehouse&start=10

Autolink
Even if I get a CPU factory to have enough stock (all other specs, including price, being similar), I still see the purchasing units in the WH stuck with some other CPU factory that can’t keep up. Is the Auto Link Supplier supposed to trigger? Why can’t warehouses purchasing units switch suppliers? If I manually set suppliers with oversupply, the WH starts building inventory, increasing revenue. Can this be automated?
Should warehouses not use Autolink and be manually set to specific/isolated factories?

Layouts
What sort of layouts are recommended for the WH? I have tried P-I-S, thinking the purchasing unit will switch suppliers, but I have the issue above. I have also tried 3xP-I-S hoping that at least one P will purchase inventory. Still, this sometimes does not work as it seems all P units pull from the same factory, and the stock is exhausted quickly.
What about CPU factory layouts, I have some with 2P, 1S, and 6M without using max utilization on the Sales unit. I have also had 1P, 1I, 2S, and 5M which I feel has a bit more thruput because it builds up more stock on the sales units. I’m still trying to optimize thruput because even though the sales units have stock, they sit idle or use up all the stock before utilization rate goes up.

Suppliers
On the supplier side (factory), I sometimes see demand (red bar), but no clients are associated with the factory. Is this due to some delay? It seems that days go by before the red bar updates. I also, from time to time find CPU factories with a 9 level sales unit full of inventory and no clients, not even the WH.

Retail warehouses
I think I’m having better luck with WH for retail goods. I'm unsure if it's because there is more supply/less demand or maybe the WH is having luck pulling retail goods from factories, as opposed to a semi-product?

Any help?

[TheOscar]

Cap supply issue 1.png (524.33 KiB) Viewed 6689 times

Factory with lots of demand, lots of stock but no clients

Cap supply issue 1.png (524.33 KiB) Viewed 6689 times

Warehouse with purchasing units that have low supply, Output units with stock, clients attached, but zero utilization. Also zig-zag revenue spikes.

[mrgarrettscott]

Is there any guidance or help on utilizing warehouses to improve logistics? How am I able to use WHs the best?
I usually play with a COO, managing all factory, retail, and WHs. Max share target and Max freight concern. I prefer COO to order from the warehouse. Internal sales are always on, and internal items are sold at cost. Low Supply tolerance at zero.

First, the COO is best, in my view, as a price manager at retail. If you let the COO control the farms, factories, and warehouses, the pricing is going to be out of order. You should always control these and leave the COO to retail. Max freight concern ensures that freight is cheaper, he will probably choose that. Ditto for low supply. If your factories aren't meeting demand, why would a COO with low supply tolerance buy from his own warehouses? The only way to increase supply is to invest in corporate-wide training or build more factories.

urrently, I'm having an issue where CPUs are in such demand that it feels like I can't keep up.

You need more factories making CPUs. You can link more than one factory to warehouse input unit. Check the warehouse input unit's utilization. If it isn't at 100 percent, you can link more factories to it.

Don't use "auto link to supplier". Manually, set the warehouse to pull CPUs from factories. Then, set all factories that make something requiring a CPU to purchase from the warehouse.

On Autolink, I prefer not use it. It is convenient to be sure. I don't find the behavior predictable. So, I eliminate the random factor and decide for myself who is getting what from where and at what cost.

What sort of layouts are recommended for the WH?

This depends. The basic layout is I-S-O. However, that doesn't work for all scenarios. If you are in a market that requires a lot of CPUs, you probably want more storage to eliminate bottlenecks. This requires you to be hands-on versus leaving it COO. As an example, in the Real World Mod, oil is an important resource. I use a warehouse to store all that oil until I convert it to gasoline, diesel or plastic. And then, I use a warehouses to store gasoline, diesel, and plastic, using as much storage is necessary.

On the supplier side (factory), I sometimes see demand (red bar), but no clients are associated with the factory. Is this due to some delay? It seems that days go by before the red bar updates. I also, from time to time find CPU factories with a 9 level sales unit full of inventory and no clients, not even the WH.

Again, manage the warehouses and factories yourself to ensure sales units aren't full of inventory. You are generally a better manager than the AI.

I think I’m having better luck with WH for retail goods. I'm unsure if it's because there is more supply/less demand or maybe the WH is having luck pulling retail goods from factories, as opposed to a semi-product?

Warehouses don't treat semi-products different from retail products. You are either meeting demand or you are not meeting demand. Warehouse are great for sure and one of the best additions to Capitalism Lab by far.In my opinion, warehouses make Capitalism 2, upon which Lab is based upon, obsolete. As long as you manually manage the factories and/or farms, you should be good to go. I don't want to the disparage the the value of the COO, just understand its limitations.

[TheOscar]

Thanks for the reply and the suggestions!

If you let the COO control the farms, factories, and warehouses, the pricing is going to be out of order.

I think I'm going to look into this pricing issue a bit more now. Pricing does seem to be an issue, and the additional costs for the warehouse are making it worse, I believe. One of the things I'll investigate is that I'm thinking that customers are switching between CPU factories because the warehouse may just be more expensive. Additionally, my instruction of selling factory goods at cost may be driving customers to buy directly from factories.

You can link more than one factory to the warehouse input unit. Check the warehouse input unit's utilization. If it isn't at 100 percent, you can link more factories to it.

I'm not sure what you meant here. I know I can use multiple purchasing units to link multiple factories to one storage unit. But how to link more then one factory within an input unit? (On a side note, I wish the multiple-floor warehouse was part of the subsidiary DLC )

Don't use "auto link to supplier". Manually, set the warehouse to pull CPUs from factories. Then, set all factories that make something requiring a CPU to purchase from the warehouse.

I'll look into this. I like to automate everything but the CPU situation may need manual intervention. I'll see if I can fix pricing issues first, then look into removing autolink from warehouses and eventually maybe I will have to look into Idleing the COO at supplier factories for some custom pricing.

If you are in a market that requires a lot of CPUs, you probably want more storage to eliminate bottlenecks

Makes sense!

Thanks for the help! I will try to fix this CPU market and get better at using WHs. I'm not ready to manually manage all farms and factories yet but I may have to just do it for some key supply chains. I just recently purchased a major competitor, so I'm in a firm rationalization mode right now but will try out your advice as I can.

Cheers,

[mrgarrettscott]

I think I'm going to look into this pricing issue a bit more now. Pricing does seem to be an issue, and the additional costs for the warehouse are making it worse, I believe. One of the things I'll investigate is that I'm thinking that customers are switching between CPU factories because the warehouse may just be more expensive. Additionally, my instruction of selling factory goods at cost may be driving customers to buy directly from factories.

Pricing is always preset unless you change it. The COO or CEO (subsidiary) defaults to a set price for factories, farms, and warehouses. Usually, that price isn't ideal. If you want to sell CPUs to your warehouses at cost, set the factory to internal sale, forcing external customers to buy from the warehouse.

You can link more than one factory to the warehouse input unit. Check the warehouse input unit's utilization. If it isn't at 100 percent, you can link more factories to it.

Quoting myself, I was wrong about this. One warehouse input per farm/factory. Warehouse Output is where you can link multiple items pulling from it with the limitation being utilization/training level.

(On a side note, I wish the multiple-floor warehouse was part of the subsidiary DLC )

I'd suggest getting all the DLCs if it is in your budget. Mult-floor warehouses are powerful. There was a push for multi-floor factories but that hasn't happened yet..