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[Meph]

Just putting it out there:

The speed that a job needs to be finished depends on the skill of the worker. The higher the skill, the faster the worker. If a reaction uses no skill at all, it is finished instantly, just like pushing a button.

One could design buildings that are very high-tech, very expensive to build, which make items (furniture, armor, weapons, basic things) instantly. Imagine some sort of factory or machine that does the work for you, while the actualy worker is just pressing a button. Which elevates that tech-level a bit towards industrial revolution.

One could also base it upon magic, a "tranmute/shape/summon/magically make" stuff into items.

I havent spend much thought upon it, and dont know if there is an interested on such a workshop or industry. It would certainly be more geared towards large fortresses with 200 dwarves or so. Mind that the reactions would not be free, but simply instantly finished as soon as the worker collects all the materials in the workshop.

Obviously the worker would get no skill from this, so even if you make 10000 instant-tables, your mason wouldnt get any skill increase. It would also mean that any nearby dwarf would do the job, just like "pulling the lever". You could still enforce more control by using workshop profiles if you like.

[cainiao]

YES,PLEASE!

[Putnam]

You could also simulate assembly line jobs. Have a workshop (high tier, of course) that makes free (!!) "tokens". The tokens are used for a series of automatic reactions with an end result. For example, auto-soap:

Automatic reaction that creates ash out of wood using the wood and the token (not used up in the reaction) as a reagent.
Automatic reaction that creates lye out of all the standard stuff and the token (again, not used) as a reagent.
Automatic reaction that makes soap with lye and tallow that does uses up the token.

Main issue: it clutters the manager window something fierce.

[Apani]

Whining besides... 
I'd like the "assembly line" to work like the tostapani, millstone you call it. It'd have to be powered, and a worker would have to take logs or boulders there and then leave, while the building turns it into the item desidered. If hardcoding limitations allow it, of course.

[Arkenor]

Not a huge fan of this. Though if it had to receive a significant amount of mechanical power like a mill does, that would balance it out a *bit* and make more sense.

[fricy]

I'll join the others in their whining: good idea, but wait until powered custom workshops are possible. (dfhack r4?)

[Lottanubs]

A decent tradeoff between automation and specialization would be that you would have to forfeit masterwork-quality products in exchange for a quick, easy, steady stream of mid-level quality items.

Perhaps the teching up to factories could include automatons in some way...

[Vabalokis]

Totally yes

[Apani]

Step 1: build a quantum stockpile with all your wood or stones or whatever.
Step 2: place the factory over the quantum stockpile.
Step 3: order something made with stuff in the quantum stockpile. On repeat.
Step 4: count how long it takes to the "worker" to cancel his job because he already used all the material.

[silentdeth]

I don't see how this would be useful. A legendary crafter is already quite fast, at that point the limiting step is how long it takes to bring the materials to the workshop, not how long it takes to run the reaction. If you then make it a very expensive building, then by the time someone builds it they are already past the point of needing large quantities of low quality items. At the point you have a 200 dwarf fort why would you want to fill a dinning room or bedroom with common quality items; it lowers the value, defeating the purpose of having such rooms.

Instead I think it would be a better idea to address the actual limiting factor in a mature fort, the supply of items to the workshops. If my unskilled workers could crate up enough steel to produce 10 sets of platemail, then my legendary armorer could take that crate over to the armory and unpack it into a bunch of items that do not have a stockpile, thus don't get removed from the workshop, they would also be small so they did not clutter the workshop. Then said armorer could craft sets of platemail from those unpacked items quickly, without ever having to leave the workshop. That would be more useful to me than a bunch of common quality tables.

[Lottanubs]

Silent has an excellent point. Having a workshop that packages materials tightly together in, say, a crate, would be a god-send. Or perhaps a workshop that you pack items into - like a supply depot; a 2x2 construction that holds materials. This can probably be done through reactions which produce the same item it requires, such as a "store boulder" reaction which uses no skill, would require a worker to drag a boulder into the workshop and leave it there.

That is actually a really bad idea, but I'm just brainstorming.

[Apani]

Meph wants it because of his everyone-does-everything (EDE) policy. He wants stuff to be made by the closest free guy, however skilled he is. And now he also wants a way so that said "worker" can make stuff very fast. (but I really should stick to the whining thread for such whinings) Anyway, I agree with Deth. Assembly chains are meant for milions people all over the world non stop, a pair of skilled artisans can handle hundreds people's needs. Furniture-sets reactions are already enough simplyficating.

[Lottanubs]

Although, maybe the factory *should* be added for those horrible tyrrautocradictators that apply the EDE policy. Said factories can also employ child labor and have a chance of eating a limb every so often, just like real life!

[Varyag]

everyone-does-everything policy.

I love that policy, used to be extremely picky about professions but it only caused me grief when i would get two 30+ migrant waves in a row. It is no fun to play the game for an hour and spend another hour just micromanaging job assignments.

Nowadays i just pick out the most useful dwarves. Soldiers, smiths, craftsmen etc. If their job involves a quality modifier of valuable or otherwise useful materials like leather and cooked meals then they are out of the regular workforce to pursue perfection. Slowdowns due to lack of skill isn't that bad if you consider the fact that most of the time spent on a job involves hauling items to the workshop. I mass assign bone carvers though as bone is not valuable enough for me to consider specializing in it. Now i can spend 1 hour 55 minutes playing game and 5 minutes assigning jobs and i no longer find the obsessive need to count and sort every single piece of grain in the pantry according to size, color and quality.

However, I think that mass production can already be achieved by just adding more workshops next to the older ones so having an assembly line is not needed.

[Apani]

Yeah, micromanaging to the 100% is a pain. I usually assign specialized workers to quality-related works and assign anybody free to other jobs at the moment I need them. I tend to mass assign only butchering, since just an handful butchers is very likely to let corpses to rot.