Manufacturing

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An outline of the manufacturing process.

In the EvE universe, most items are manufactured by player characters and traded in a relatively free way in the marketplace. Students of economics will note that these markets are neither perfect nor efficient in the technical senses; volumes of many items are low enough that the market can be manipulated (and is), and supply of materials and modules is partly provided by loot drops in missions, which can be adjusted without warning by the game developers. Similarly, the developers may adjust the requirements for a manufacturing process, or increase the availability of ore, or otherwise mess in the sandbox. So it's not a bad proxy for real life at that. (All these interventions have happened within the 90 days prior to this writing.)

Nonetheless, manufacturing and selling items can provide interest and ISK profit for the careful and canny player. The player must be aware, however, that there are plenty of items which actually destroy value -- that is, there are a great number of T1 items, modules especially, that are worth less than the cost of manufacture. There are many more items which can be sold at a profit, but only in a limited volume in certain markets. Manufacture in these cases may simply be an alternative to hauling stuff between markets.

T1 Production

Skills

The following skills are useful or required for T1 production. Most or all of these will be needed for T2/T3 production as well. Recommended minimum skills are Industry 3 and Production Efficiency 4. Supply Chain Management 1 is required to use the Uni POS service.

Production Skills

Production skills are found in the Industry category.

Basic:

  • Industry (1x, 30k ISK) - 4% reduction in manufacturing time per skill level.
At least level 1 is required to use most blueprints, and level 3 is required for further manufacturing skills. The speed bonus increases the rate at which you can produce items (and therefore, produce profit) and reduces installation costs slightly.

Increase number of concurrent jobs:

By default, all characters can run 1 manufacturing job at a time. Training this skill lets you run additional jobs simultaneously from 2 jobs at level I up to 6 jobs at level V. Any industrialist who wants to create things will need to train this to IV or V fairly early in their plans. Level 5 is required for:
The current NPC price for this skill is 20M ISK. So if you invest, train it to level IV quickly. At level I you'll be able to use a total of 7 job slots (1 base + 5 from mass production + 1 from this skill) up to a total of 11 slots at level V. Most people stop training after level IV and instead choose to roll up a new production alt.

Reduce materials needed:

  • [[Skills:Material Efficiency]] (Material Efficiency, <span style="cursor: help;" title="The skillbook for this skill costs Material Efficiency ISK">Material Efficiency ISK) - 5% reduction per skill level to the material requirements needed for production.
If you are just producing ammo for your own use, training this skill to level III or IV is all that is needed as you won't care about an extra 8-12% waste. But for the profit-minded industrialist, training this skill to level V is a very strong recommendation.

Allow remote management of jobs:

  • Supply Chain Management (3x, 7.5M ISK) - Proficiency at starting manufacturing jobs remotely. Each level increases the distance at which jobs can be created. Level 1 allows for range within the same solar system, Level 2 extends that range to systems within 5 jumps, and each subsequent level then doubles it. Level 5 allows for full regional range.
This skill is more of a convenience skill than a must-have for a budding industrialist. The current NPC cost is 6.75M ISK, but it allows you to manage your production lines for a distance. If you invest in this skill, training to level III or maybe level IV would offer the most flexibility. Note that you still have to haul the materials and blueprint to the relevant station.

Research Skills

Research skills are found in the Science category.

Basic:

  • Science (1x, 30k ISK) – 5% Bonus to blueprint copying speed per level.
Basic skill, reduces time needed to create BPCs. Level 3 is required for Research.

Time reduction:

  • Research (1x, 500k ISK) – 5% bonus to blueprint manufacturing time research per skill level.
  • Metallurgy (3x, 500k ISK) - 5% Bonus to material efficiency research speed per skill level.

Increase number of concurrent jobs:

  • Laboratory Operation (1x, 500k ISK) – allows you to run a research operation, either ME or PL, per level.
Basically equivalent to the Mass Production skills. Level 5 is required for:

Allow remote management of jobs:

  • Scientific Networking (3x, 10M ISK) - Skill at running research operations remotely. Each level increases the distance at which research projects can be started. Level 1 allows for range within the same solar system, Level 2 extends that range to systems within 5 jumps, and each subsequent level then doubles it. Level 5 allows for full regional range.
Basically the Laboratory equivalent of Supply Chain Management.

Other Skills

  • Trade (1x, 30k ISK) / Retail (2x, 125k ISK) / Wholesale (4x, 35M ISK) etc - Increases number of available market orders.
Buy and Sell orders will most often be the main way of acquiring materials and selling manufactured products, and increasing the number of available orders beyond the base 5 will help greatly.
These skills will allow you to manipulate market orders without being present in the relevant station. Level 2, or 5 jumps, allows management of Hek from Aldrat and Rens from Eystur.
These skills will reduce some extra costs from installation and market orders, increasing profit margins.

Blueprints

All manufacturing jobs require a blueprint. These come in two forms: originals (BPOs) with infinite runs and copies (BPCs) that can only be run a limited number of times. For most blueprints, a single run of a blueprint will produce a single item, but there are some exceptions including ammo, which produces 100 ammo per run. BPCs are produced through copying (T1) and invention (T2).

Selecting a Blueprint

T1 BPOs are seeded by various NPC traders, with costs varying from 100,000 to 72 billion ISK. This can be a significant cost, especially to new players. Also significant is the amount of research time that may be spent on the blueprint. Selecting a good one versus a bad one is important!

A good blueprint will have these characteristics:

  • Inexpensive Materials - The material cost should be such that you can reasonably expect to manufacture a decent number of items, and you won't be bankrupt if you lose them while trying to sell them. There isn't a rule on how much cost is too much, but if you need a number then keep the cost of an item below 1% of your net worth. This will not be a problem for players with a large wallet, but can be an issue for new players starting out in manufacturing. The BPO Research Calculator provides an estimate of the material cost, which typically makes up the bulk of T1 manufacturing cost. Instructions for using this site will be given below.
  • Good Profit Margins - The difference between the selling price and the cost to manufacture should be worthwhile. Be sure to compare the absolute profit (ISK) and percent profit (% of selling price) and make sure both are worth your time. What makes it worth your time? It is up to the individual, but strive for at least 10% per item. Profits of 80% have been witnessed by players as young as 2 months to EVE, but they are rare and tend to disappear. Note that [[Skills:Material Efficiency]] has a large impact on profit margins. If you are considering manufacturing as a career, spend the time and train it to V as soon as possible.
  • Good Transaction Volume - If you find an item that is extremely profitable but is only sold once per week, then it has poor transaction volume. There is no guarantee that you can capture all (or even most) of the sales of a particular item! To check the volume of an item, use the Market window. If you choose an item, click on the Price History tab. If it shows a graph, you can see daily sales volume by clicking the Show Table button in the bottom of the window. This will show you how many of an item were sold each day in the region over the last 3 months (default).

There are many items that do meet all three requirements. Finding them is a matter of a lot of research time looking for items that meet your criteria. Typically it is easiest to search through the market tab looking for items with sufficient volume, then go to the BPO research calculator to compare the prices to selling volumes. Once you choose a blueprint, the BPO Research Calculator will also tell you what faction sells the BPOs you have chosen.

Reducing the Cost of a Blueprint

Blueprints have a "Bill of Materials": this is a list of the materials and skills that a single run of the blueprint requires. Most simple blueprints require Industry 1 to run, although more advanced blueprints will require more advanced skills, probably increasing the total cost of owning the blueprint.

Blueprints have a number of attributes that affect the efficiency of the BPO. All newly purchased BPOs have a degree of wastage associated with them. These are split into:

  • Material Level
New BPOs will always use 10% or 25% more material than ideal, independent of character skill. The level of material waste is controlled by the Material Efficiency (ME) level, and can be reduced by performing Material Research at a laboratory slot. With no skills, blueprints will have an additional 20% material waste, which is reduced with the Material Efficiency skill.
Material level research in public stations are extremely hard to find, and most stations have a queue of two weeks or more to do research. The University provides a service to research BPOs for students who have the [Θ] Theta or Sophomore titles.
You may want to check the Contracts market for BPOs that are already researched if getting ME research completed is taking too long. While these BPOs are generally marked up 10x the normal purchase price (or much more!) the extra cost can usually be recouped in the time it would take to research the BPO yourself. Remember that while you are researching, the BPO is unavailable for use. A BPO in hand can be immediately used to generate revenue.
  • Productivity Level
As with ME, the amount of time needed to produce the item will take x% longer than ideal. The level of time waste is controlled by the PE level, and performing Time Efficiency Research at a laboratory slot will reduce the wasted time during manufacture.
Productivity level research in public stations is generally available with no wait time, although you may have to travel a few systems to find them.

Both forms of research are subject to fairly severe stacking penalties, so while a few levels of research are almost mandatory on most blueprints, it becomes much less worthwhile after that. The lowest ME level that results in a BPO with zero wasted units of materials ("Ideal ME") is determined by the material with the highest unit quantity. For 10% wastage BPOs, Perfect ME = quantity/5.5. For 25% wastage BPOs, Perfect ME = quantity/2.5.

This site BPO Research Calculator provides an easy way of finding out the optimal ME and PE research level. To use it, you first must search for a particular item. For example: 1MN Microwarpdrive I. After you search, select the correct blueprint from the search results. You can select your skill level (Metallurgy, Research, and Industry), and then Submit. The website will then generate tables to show you various ME and PE levels effect on the estimated manufacturing cost and production time. If you wish to see a particular ME or PE level, you can enter it into the relevant field and resubmit.

Blueprint Copying

T1 Blueprint Copies (BPCs) are produced by copying (running a copy job on) T1 BPOs. The resulting BPCs will inherit the Material and Productivity levels of the respective BPO, but cannot be researched further. Public copy slots are also hard to find, and the University provides a BPO copying service. BPCs are required for T2 manufacturing.

Running Jobs

File:Bpomanufacturingoptions.png
Installing a manufacturing job
File:Manufacturing progress.png
Checking the progress of manufacturing jobs

Once you have a blueprint and some materials ready, it's time to produce your goods. Most of the time you'll be using an NPC station to manufacture goods, and it's generally a lot easier to find available manufacturing slots than research slots. Most NPC stations will charge 1000ISK + 333ISK/hour to use, and this can often make small runs unprofitable, so be careful. Generally, creating more runs at a time will reduce the impact of the 1000ISK installation fee.

If you have a POS available to manufacture with, then there are a few more options (and no installation costs). Different arrays can be constructed that are able to manufacture different types of modules or ships - at an increased rate compared to a station manufacturing line. A special type of array, the Rapid Equipment Assembly Array, can create modules even faster than a normal POS array, but at an increased mineral cost.

Once you have the minerals and blueprint in the target station, then right-click on the blueprint and select Manufacturing. Pick an installation with the top button, and set the number of runs, and you should be good to go. A confirmation window will pop up with a check that you have enough materials and telling you how much it will cost: press Accept Quote to start the job running.

While the job is running, you can check on its progress using the Science&Industry window on the NeoCom. Select the Jobs tab, and a list of your currently running jobs will be displayed. Clicking on a job will show more details, including the time to completion (TTC). You can cancel the job if you want your blueprint back for some reason, but note that the minerals will be lost and the manufacturing line will stay unavailable until the job would have completed.

Finally, once the job is completed, the Cancel button will be replaced by a Deliver button; press this and the results and blueprint will be returned to the station.


T2 Production

Skills

This article is a stub. You can help the UniWiki by expanding it.

Basic skills:

These are required for a lot of the other skills in this section. Level 5 may be additionally required.
Required for Hacking
Required for racial Decryptor skills
T2 blueprints will require Science V in addition to one or more of Electronics, Engineering or Mechanic for their respective blueprint skills.

Racial Decryptor skills:

  • Amarr / Minmatar / Caldari / Gallente Encryption Systems
These skills are required to use the respective decryptors.

Electronics skills: (These skills require Science and Electronics V)

Used for Electronic Warfare, Railguns
Used for Electronic Warfare, Webbers, Scramblers and Drones
Used for Armor/Hull, Repair Systems

Engineering skills: (These skills require Science and Engineering 5)

Used for Cloaking, Webbers, Scramblers
Used for Energy Systems, Laser Weapons
Used for Shields
Used for Laser Weapons, Mining Lasers
Used for Projectile Weapons
Used for Blasters
Used for Cloaking, Energy Systems, Shield Systems

Mechanic skills: (These skills require Science and Mechanic V)

  • Amarrian / Minmatar / Caldari / Gallente Starship Engineering
Used for Racial Ship Construction
Used for Capital Ship Production
Used for Repair Systems, Starships, Railguns, Blasters, Projectiles, Mining Lasers, Missile Launchers, Drones
Used for Armor/Hull, Propulsion Systems
Used for Outpost Construction
Used for Propulsion Systems, Missile Launchers

Invention

File:Invention quote.png
Installing an invention job.
File:T2BPC BOM.png
Cap Recharger II
File:Invention Success.png
Success!
File:T2BPC BOM2.png
Jaguar

Currently, T2 blueprints are available through the Invention mechanic, which replaced the old and controversial T2 Lottery. While T2 BPOs still exist, and have much better efficiency than available T2 BPCs, there are not enough to keep up with current demand for T2 items and it is fairly viable for newer players to get into the T2 market.

T2 BPCs are created with the related T1 BPC, a couple of specific datacores, a data interface (which is only needed to start the job and is not consumed), and an optional decryptor. T2 blueprints also require a fairly large number of skills, dependant on the specific blueprint, that are found in the Science category. Notably, T2 Invention jobs do not have a guaranteed chance of success. An approximate formula for the chance of success in T2 invention is implemented in the Invention Chance Calculator.

The success chance can be altered by the type of decryptor used and by adding a named variant of the item you are producing into the mix. Due to the price of decryptors they are typically reserved for expensive inventions so that the invented bpc will have a better ME/PE. For example the Anshar BPC would normally have -4/-4 but by using the Collision Measurements decryptor (~4m) not only does that increase the chance of a successful invention but it will also result in a BPC with -1/-1, ~20m saving and 11D faster production.

Datacores

Datacores are a consumable used in the invention process. They are gained through NPC Research agents, and can be farmed with a certain set of skills and some good standings.

Blueprints operations that require specific datacores will also require the relevant skill to level 1, listed in the skills section above.


Weblinks

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