Find the bottleneck before buying more machines

Follow one small load

1. Start at the receiving point: confirm the vehicle unloads or the Packager releases material.
2. Follow the belt to the first node or machine where material waits.
3. For a processing machine, check every required ingredient, operating power and outgoing route.
4. Continue to the Hub and verify payment for arriving dust or stone.

Compare the same setup over a short observation

Our suggested diagnostic is to stop adding equipment briefly and watch the same route. Note which queue grows, which drains and which never moves. This separates an interrupted connection from a capacity question without assuming a throughput figure.

If changing one connection clears the queue, observe another load before expanding. If a supplied, powered stage remains the point where material accumulates, that is the stage to investigate further.

Advice the evidence does not establish

• The forum's two-garage/many-machine example is a personal layout, not a verified optimum.
• A larger vehicle tank does not by itself prove that the Hub intake is slow.
• A higher material sale value is not a measured hourly-profit increase.
• The old non-host splitter problem was explicitly addressed in 1.0.3.

If the machine says Could not pack a capsule

Version 1.0.4 specifically addresses machines stopping with “Could not pack a capsule” despite available power and materials. Update before testing that symptom again. If it persists, preserve the machine, version and first blocked stage; the fix does not replace the input, power and output checks above.