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[callisto8413]

Is having manager worth it?   I like to have more than one type of any workshop so I can have the Dwarfs working on different items but the manager always makes all the same workshops work on the same order.  And when I want something done fast as is I need it RIGHT now I find it faster to go straight to the workshops.

[Edward_Tohr]

I find it worth it for workshop profiles, but that's about it.

I mean, there's no harm in appointing one, even if you never use him.

[callisto8413]

I find it worth it for workshop profiles, but that's about it.

I mean, there's no harm in appointing one, even if you never use him.

To decide who uses what workshop when you want only the best items?  I see.  That makes sense.

[tiresius]

I use it often because setting to make 30 barrels is a lot easier than spamming the keyboard over every workshop to make 10 barrels each.  Similar with sets of clothing.

[Shonai_Dweller]

It's useful because jobs don't get cancelled when you run out of material/some dwarf is hauling the bin with all the materials you need.

[PatrikLundell]

Usage of a manager is play style dependent, but as said, there's no harm appointing one if you appoint the same dorf as the one selected as book keeper (both need an "office", but combining the two still makes do with a single one).

[Niddhoger]

If you have multiple workshops and just want only one of them to do the manager jobs, its not worth it.  The micromanagement involved to force all the jobs into the "right" workshop isn't worth the time its supposed to save.

If you have just one of that workshop though, or don't mind all of them being used? Go ahead.  I rarely have more than one still, and even if I build two its not like I generally care if the jobs get split between them.  Same with kitchens... but I often just set those on repeat. Clothiers, bowyers (using metal on a crossbow that just needs bone!? HELL NO!), and leatherworkers are other good candidates.  I never build more than one carpenter either, so I can use hte manager for it. 

I'll have 5 craft shops and 3-5 forges though, and different mason shops with different profiles (master makes furniture/slabs, some scud labor churns out blocks).  A jewelers for cutting and a jeweler for setting.  A kiln/glass smelter for collecting, and another for forging... etc, etc.  I don't want to queue up some bone armor to be made, and find my bone crafter spending an entire year running around the fort dragging bones to hte various other shops (wood craft near the carpenter/wood pile, stone craft shop near the masons, another shop near the textiles to make instrument strings, etc).  However, if I want 30 sets of each clothing item made, sure.  Even if I have two clothier shops they will always be right next to each other.  So whatever. 

[Edward_Tohr]

I find it worth it for workshop profiles, but that's about it.

I mean, there's no harm in appointing one, even if you never use him.

To decide who uses what workshop when you want only the best items?  I see.  That makes sense.

And also to make sure my legendary mason gets some time off while I let all the useless migrants pick up a few levels making blocks.

[Lightfoot]

I found the manager to be somewhat useful as it let me make workshop profiles. I wanted to make sure I had the real snazzy goods made by my legendary glassmaker, with all the no-quality items (Raw green glass, green glass blocks, etc.) made by my peasants to help train them up. So with a manager I made sure that the forge where I would order the nice goods was assigned to the legendary glassmaker, while the peasants were assigned to the forge making the raw goods.

[Isaac23]

I couldn't play without a manager so

[tj333]

I think I would drive myself crazy without a manager. Just the amount of time it saves me queuing up tasks in workshops. I also setup macros for common batches of goods that I use in my forts. I like it as a very nice fire and forget form of management since tasks will be completed as materials become available.

I do usually have workshops assigned to specific dwarves when I want the best work done or a small batch quick where I add tasks directly. I don't find having manager assigned tasks to interfere with this as I can cancel and change task priority.

[Legionaries]

I recently used the stockflow plugin for the very first time, which uses your bookkeeper and a manager to issue and execute orders based on stockpiles quantities or lack thereof.  I really found it helpful in my latest fort.

For instance
You can make a stockpile for hematite, then specify that for each stored item of hematite you want to issue an order to smelt hematite.
I have a stockpile for steel helms.  For every 2 empty spaces, I order one steel helm automatically.

Using this with a manager and bookkeeper I've found new ways to maintain minimum number of drinks & meals, auto smelt steel/metals when materials are available, and replace worn clothing before people start going naked.  The furniture for my bedrooms gets reordered automatically as it gets placed, and I'm auto-melting any unusable or non steel military items without having to issue any commands. 

So if you haven't tried stockflow yet, check it out.  it is the j and J options when you query the a stockpile. (I use the LNP package and it is already enabled.)

[Niddhoger]

Yeah, but the manager is only worth it for the profile space and a few niche things.  It takes more work than the manager saves to force orders into specific workshops (have to fill one up with dummy suspended/repeated jobs).  So outside of setting profiles, like a forge to train your laborers up to dabbling weaponsmith on repeat (say, with copper bolts for training/hunting), its mostly a wash.  I don't want my legendary mason wasting time making blocks the cheesmakers can work on, when I want masterwork obsidian furniture carved up for the mayor.  Even worse, if you spread out shops for various purposes (putting several craftshops up around the various different materials it can use), dwarves will waste massive amounts of time bouncing around your fort doing one job on each.  Your bone crafter will be locked out of his workshop trying to make instrument parts, because the manager added "rock mugs" to his shop, so the stonecrafter is spending x10 longer than he should by dragging stones up near the bone pile.  Or like the glass-making example... You have to have enough bags and glass workers ready to keep the collection smelter (filled with suspended/repeated collect sand bags) and the "scud labor" smelter (filled with repeated/suspended glass block/raw glass jobs) locked down to ensure only the legendary guy actually makes stuff at his smelter, as otherwise a "glass table" job will be added to the collect sand smelter and your dinkus makes it with no quality. 

Its just whenever I use a manager, I spend more time fighting it than saving time from it.  Other than profiles, never use if unless you know you only have one shop to give those orders too. 

[Sanctume]

Using Manager:

Mason workshop #1: Profile for Novice to Proficient, build 10x blocks on repeat, 9 of them suspended. 

new masons make blocks forever until they are Proficent level.

Mason workshop #2: Profile for Proficient-Legendary.

Manager: job 30 rock cabinets , 30 rock doors.

Since #1 is full of build jobs and/or suspended jobs, #2 gets all the manager order. 

Works great for levelling up weaponsmiths up to proficient to increase the chance to mood weapons.
I make Forge #1 make bolts on repeat for Novice to Proficient.

And micro-manage or use manager for other weapon/armor job orders.

[greycat]

I think I've mentioned this before, but possibly not in this thread....

I only issue manager orders for very specific commodities that I want made in bulk.  Mostly this means clothing.  j m q cloth trou 30 Enter, and so on.  If I have multiple Clothier's workshops, they are all near each other and taking from the same cloth stockpile, so I don't care which workshop does it.  Nor do I care about the quality of the clothing, etc.

I do not use the manager for anything where I care about the quality, especially weapons, armor and furniture; or where I care about the input material, which mostly means stone blocks.  (I am very particular about which kind of stone blocks I use where.)