What takes the most time when preparing a production batch?

Industry Gameplay Center Science & Industry
1

Hey everyone!

Once you’ve decided what to build and how much, how easy is it to get the jobs started? I’m curious about what takes time at that stage and whether you find yourself manually putting information together or double-checking things for each batch.

I’m working on EveHub, a tool for industry calculations and production planning. I’d like to hear how other players handle batch preparation, since my own experience only covers some ways of doing things.

If you remember a recent batch that took extra effort to set up, what made it difficult, and how did you deal with it? And if your process already runs smoothly, I’d be interested to hear what helped.

Thanks!

Edit after the first replies: I’ve narrowed the question down. I’m asking about preparing and organizing jobs once you’ve already chosen what to produce and in what quantities.

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Oh so you’re just trying to sell some software or something? I know a lot about industry but I don’t see why I would need to know any of these answers to your questions. So I’m wondering why you would need answers to these questions. Like why would I do all this for you? And if you do have a product to sell… What are you just getting started? I can’t make any sense of this help me out.

Let me just give you some advice about business in this game. Don’t start dealing with problems that you have not run into. And when you do run into it… Then solve it in the best way possible. If you did that you wouldn’t be asking these questions. You would be the expert with the answers.

What is it that prompts your next batch?

Recent sales metrics or possible player driven conflicts.

How do you figure out what to do next?

This is a redundant question that you don’t need to ask because it was answered in the first question…

What do you use for planning and tracking?

Money flows. Market conditions. Cartels. Pump and dump. Mass buying power opportunities for market flux. My own brain. AI assisted micro views turned to code and used in bulletins or notes in game while my brain works on macroeconomics.

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This OP was just AI slop cuz you’re trying to sell software isn’t it…

Have you ever heard the expression to use the proper tool for the proper job. You just asked everyone to describe everything that they do in industry. You can’t build a tool for that.

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Fair question — I could have been clearer about why I started this thread.

I’m developing an industry tool, and the answers could certainly help me improve it. That’s why I mentioned the project upfront. I’m not expecting anyone to do research for me; I was hoping to exchange experiences with people who are interested.

My own experience helps me identify some problems, but other players may have very different approaches and challenges. I’m interested in understanding how people run production beyond my own usual process.

Regarding the first two questions, I can see why they sounded similar. I meant two different stages: what prompts you to choose your next batch, and how you organize production once that decision is made — checking materials, preparing intermediate components, and allocating jobs across characters and slots. I didn’t make that distinction clear enough in the post.

You’ve explained what drives your production decisions. Once you’ve made that decision, does preparing and coordinating the jobs take much effort, or is that part already running smoothly for you?

Thanks for sharing your approach.

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Fair point, I made the question too broad. I’m not trying to build a tool for everything people do in industry. I wanted to hear about specific frustrations with planning, but ended up writing a whole questionnaire.

Let me put it more simply: once you’ve decided what to build and how much, which step before starting the jobs takes the most time? If that part already runs smoothly for you, that’s useful to know too.

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There is a limit on edits and I happen to enjoy editing. So ill answer on Solutions.

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I don’t know that person above. I’m blind in my left eye and 43% blind in my right eye.
I dont know anything about any of this but this is what I heard from a friend.

Question 3 should be two parts if I may… Tracking is the part where I stop using game knowledge and move to software and spreadsheets.

‘…does preparing and coordinating the jobs take much effort, or is that part already running smoothly for you?’
(all of this is artistic expression and my actual profession is venture mining in Ashab)

The answer is based on corp size, but I’ll answer for me personally. I’m a multiboxer with the need to protect my operations from threats, so this directs how I do things vs. others who might just go to the nearest citadel in nullsec and do what they have to do with no regards other than, ‘where is the building the alliance placed for me to do this thing?’ I run several multi-regional businesses. It’s all about how much money or how much work can get done in the least amount of clicks. Clicks could be… how much can fit in this Ark, or is it worth my time to contract this out to couriers? I guess think of it like… how much revenue can I pass through my hands in this hour? Effort could be major or it could be as easy as a contract.

At this level in industry, you can choose two paths. BPO production, where you calculate how many of each and go for long builds with system cost index in mind while managing investment capital. Or you go for my most recent option, which is BPC build packs supplied by vendors. One requires fewer toons and fewer lines, but more time and more planning with tracking. The BPC packs allow you to control inventory and surplus, also using many more toons/lines in less time.

Other sites for data besides what’s gathered in-game… I use Fuzzworks to see mineral values using the Ore Calc, and then I feed Windows/Ctrl/S screenshots of all the things I need live into AI. I then feed info into prepared charts/spreadsheets I call up by name. The list of names I store in-game along with the most recent edits. My businesses run based on a Corp and all it offers in-game for characters to work together. This might help you plan—everything from Offices to Bulletins, Delivery hangars, and Contracts… But to be honest, I’d build software based on the typical player. There is not a single software that can track my metrics as a whole. This is one of the reasons I split businesses and use vertical integration.

I think most people just want to know if they are making or losing money. Like… they go to BPO calculators and just use default info, then they go in-game and just do it. You will notice that many ships sell for less than mineral value. Regular people want fast and easy information as simple as… Tell the site what I want to build. Let it figure out what current mineral costs are. Tell me if I’ll make money or lose it… if they see green, they build it. They see red… they don’t. A good salesman helps the customer make decisions, right?

‘…once you’ve decided what to build and how much, which step before starting the jobs takes the most time?’

Everything is a flow. It’s not a start and stop, it’s not a brick wall—it’s a water vortex that touches the economy. I’ll consider ‘Start’ being the actual time I start the job runs. It’s usually ready when I log in due to the BPC pack thing. Then the part that takes time… you might laugh here, sorry—I have to take my parts 1 to sometimes 3 jumps away in freighters first. If the question was more about planning… I’d have to say material acquisitions. This can be anything from investments, other businesses, or things posted in local which is about quick price evaluations. I’d have to say it doesn’t run smoothly; it’s treacherous and very dangerous to be honest. Go with the flow and break up bottlenecks would best describe it. Money is made when you buy… mostly. Avenues to the customer are a different topic. Hope any of that helps. Good luck. Thanks for putting in work to make EVE better. Anyway, you will get me killed. Sleep time. o7
I like to roleplay… this is all fiction. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

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I will be honest the best thing to do is to try. If you are having a problem then there is a 90% chance that everyone has the same problem. The best way (and the way I built my app https://eve-blueprint.com/) is to look at what current tools offer and see what would you do better if your build a tool.

For instance go to fuzzworks (Blueprint Calculator - Blueprint Display) see what they do and see what you dont like. Then go to Eve Industry (EVE Industry - Blueprint Calculator) and see what you like and dont like. maybe look at EvE cookbook (https://evecookbook.com/) and do the same.

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You and every other Eve player with Codex installed. Perfectly honest with you, there is zero demand for another vibe coded industry calculator. There are already industry calculators out there that are Quite Good, and anyone who finds those wanting can install Codex and vibecode their own.

You’re selling sand in a desert.

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My worst problem? When I added the numbers wrong, usually being in a hurry. Then the mad scramble to grab that last missing little ‘thing’ needed for the flow to finish.

My flow:

  1. Get the Blueprints
  2. Get the Materials
  3. Building
  4. Delivery

I like to get everything before starting, but I have learned over time that it is not required and delays delivery in the end.

So, making the components, using on-hand stock of minerals, can begin quickly, while prepping for assembly. Then assembly phase while prepping for final assembly.

BP organization
Materials Inventory
On-hand
Market orders
Contracts
Process time flow
Milestones

Good luck on your App. I have found it very entertaining making my EXCEL sheets with the EVE add-in.

I reserve the right to edit

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You’re right about planning and tracking — they’re different tasks, and I lumped them together in one question. I also agree with keeping things simple: choose an item and quickly see whether it’s worth building, based on the actual costs.

But I’d also like to help with the next step: turning that calculation into a finished batch. That means showing which components to build and in what quantities, the order in which to run the jobs, and how much material to buy after accounting for what’s already on hand. So once someone has checked the profit, they have a clear plan to follow.

Thanks for explaining your approach in detail. Your point about how much work you can get done per hour of your own time helps explain your choices in production and logistics. A profitable batch isn’t necessarily worth the time it takes to organize.

You’ve given me plenty to think about. Thanks for sticking with the conversation and going into more detail.

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Thanks for the advice and the links. I agree that it’s useful to go through the process yourself first and see how existing tools handle the problems you encounter.

I’ve looked at these and several other tools. The main issue I found is that you have to open and check each blueprint individually. When you want to evaluate a large number of options, finding profitable items takes a lot of time.

Ravworks came closest to what I was looking for. I liked being able to select several blueprints and compare their profitability at once. That approach became the starting point for developing my idea further. However, I found that it didn’t provide enough detail about the calculations. The final number is useful, but it’s also important to understand how it was calculated.

So my work on the tool did begin with a specific problem from my own experience. I started this discussion to find out whether other players face similar difficulties and how their production processes differ from mine.

Thanks for sharing your approach. I’d also be interested to know which limitation in the existing tools led you to create eve-blueprint.com, and what you decided to do differently.

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I understand your point — there are already plenty of industry calculators. That’s why my goal isn’t to duplicate another single-blueprint cost calculator.

What I found frustrating was the overall process: finding suitable options can require going through many blueprints, after which you still have to examine the calculation details and plan the production chain separately. I want to bring blueprint comparison, transparent calculations, and production preparation into one continuous workflow.

Codex can help write code, but access to a development tool doesn’t automatically solve the user’s problem. The product will be useful if it actually saves people time in real production.

Demand may turn out to be limited, and that would also be a valid result. But the only way to find out is to build a working product and get feedback from players. That’s what I’m doing now.

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Thank you, this gives a clear picture of what the production process looks like in practice. I’m especially familiar with the situation where a small mistake in the quantities leaves you short of a single component and brings the whole chain to a halt.

It’s also interesting how your approach has changed over time: instead of waiting until you have every material, you start the stages that are ready and prepare what you need for the next ones in parallel. In effect, production becomes a continuous flow with milestones rather than a single batch prepared in a strict sequence.

The list of things you track is also very useful. It shows that calculating the materials alone isn’t enough — you also need to understand the status of your inventory, purchases, contracts, and individual production stages.

Thank you for the detailed explanation of your process and for wishing me luck. It sounds like working on your own spreadsheets has become another enjoyable part of EVE for you.

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I like to get the materials. And then I get the bpc… I like to have all the materials before I start the job. This is the things that some of the people have said in the previous posts.

There is no other option for the work to be done. I swear sometimes these are just AI bots talking to one another about gibberish.

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Okay I think I saw a question that was how do you handle batch preparation…this is Serenne. I am every character in TKP. You can call me Kernite for now. I’m going to answer the question again to assist.

I don’t think I’m a good audience for this but I’m going to answer anyway because it might help I don’t know.

I guess you mean physically in game as if we are moving weight?..ok Rev Factory Office. I keep about $150 billion worth of parts laying in an office floor where the system cost index is feasible to do so. The latest part run is always the one that I may have been running short on in the office. So there’s always a production line waiting for those parts. So when all of the parts are ready… I move them to a different section of my office which is called Shipping. Let’s say I’m doing a batch of 10 Revelation fleet issue. I’ll move only the parts I need for those ships over to the shipping. The shipping hanger is a function in other processes which then gets moved. The next physical move for that product batch… Is to send it in freighters to a suitable system due to cost index. If my answer did not help just let me know and I will not interrupt. If you have any further questions I’ll do my best to help.

I may be of better assistance if you ask me the direct question you’re trying to solve with your software. I can probably understand the process from any angle that players use not just the one that I use for my business. It’s a matter of scale.

For example you mentioned like people will go to a site collect the mineral values and then want to see a green or a red number right… So what’s the next problem that they will run into. Because there is a best solution. Understanding what the problem is almost as good as a solution.

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See I can’t do any of that stuff that other people do because of scale. For people working in scale we have to worry about things like market manipulation at that point. Buying and selling has effects in the economy. So for bigger businesses you can’t just look at a green number and start buying because of volume.

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The people that can do that are the ones that are sitting in trade hubs and aren’t really doing much math and aren’t concerned with much more than sitting where they are and not making a lot of effort.

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I would assume the same thing happens in the major trade citadels in Null. That’s your Walmart right there.

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I don’t think you can be said to understand anything when an LLM is obviously doing most of your thinking for you.

You’re so close to getting it, though.

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