Speed Progression/SCM Education

[Phlosion]

Hello,
Phlosion here, still new to the game at level 23. I posted in the friends threads and spoke a bit about my experiences with the game. Supply chain management is exactly what this game is all about. There are a few key concepts that can completely simplify supply chain production concepts and this game as a whole.

Those concepts are

1. Throughput-

2. Inventory-

3. Capacity-

I took an SCM class at my university as part of my Human Resource Management major and they had us read a book called "The Goal", by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. The book explains the saving of a manufacturing plant through a physicists mentality and thought process. The book as a whole is a good read because it brings a lot of humanity into the main character's life, both at work saving the plant and issues at home. My point is that the book itself completely changed the way that people look at Supply Chain Management. Concepts like JIT, TQM, production bottlenecks, etc. are all part of the supply chain reality and this book simplifies it by giving it a methodical way of thinking and operating. I suggest reading this book if you have the time and want to completely dominate this game from start to finish (no 30 level learning curve to really experience the game and endgame).

Im curious to see what some of the higher level player's production layouts look like, how organized they are, and of course how well they can maintain attention to the 3 main concepts above.

Lastly, Ask yourself what is "the goal" of what we are doing in this game? Then ask yourself if each decision you make in playing this game best falls in line with the goal you have chosen. Knowing production ratios, tips and tricks to locating production yards next to resources, and other surface information is easy to attain. If you can find the true philosophical or methodical concepts of what you are doing, everything else falls in place automatically and easily.

I'm going to go back and read into that book and provide some more information about the 3 main concepts in a future post. If this post helped you, plz "bump" it.

[Bobj]

I'm level 32 and I'd like to think I've tackled the production chain ratios fairly efficiently. I went all the way to level 32 without ever having a population cap greater than 570 (It is higher now that I'm 32). I've tried to not follow the general ratios that you hear people giving for the buildings because efficiencies can be found by adjusting what you need by evaluating each individual building throughout the production chain (since distance from the storehouse/mayor's house comes into play). I'ts more math but once you start using this method I think it works well especially if you would rather not have to trade away excess resources frequently. Most of my stock levels were between 2-3k on the road to level 32 from post early twenties, and I just recently upgraded my capacity to around 11k or so.

If you or anyone would like to add me to take a look or to let me have a look I'll accept requests, I've gotten some great ideas from looking at how people set their city's up! It sounds like I would learn something from you'rs!

[Bobj]

I visited you and it's a cool looking city I like how your streets look! One thing I noticed is there are some prime spots (to the right and left of a storehouse, the quickest travel time for any building placed there) were underutilized- but maybe you're just saving those spots for cool buildings later.