🔬 True Logistics – Simulation Logger for real Factorio consultants (LogSim)

“What you cannot measure, you cannot control.”
— Tom DeMarco

Turn your factory into a data-driven logistics laboratory.

LogSim treats your Factorio factory not as a puzzle to be eyeballed, but as a complex production and logistics system to be measured, audited, and analyzed.
Instead of relying on intuition, momentary visual cues, or colored lights, LogSim provides timestamped, reproducible, machine-readable data — the same way real logistics and production consultants work.

💼 The Business Intelligence & Simulation Perspective

In real-world production, optimization is never based on “watching machines”.
It is based on auditable data, repeatable experiments, and quantifiable effects.

LogSim follows this professional analytics philosophy:

📊 Raw Data Auditing

• Precise timestamps (tick-level)
• Explicit machine states: RUN, IDLE, NOIN (starved), FULL (blocked)
• Inventory snapshots instead of visual guesses

🔬 Controlled Experiments & A/B Testing

• Freeze your factory
• Clear belts, buffers, machines, pollution
• Optionally reset Factorio statistics
• Restart under identical initial conditions

Perfect for layout comparisons, throughput experiments, and teaching.

🔗 Supply Chain Transparency

• Track exactly when, where, and why your logistics chain starves or blocks
• No assumptions, no guessing — only facts

⚖️ LogSim vs. Bottleneck (They are not competitors)

Use both. Seriously.

• Bottleneck
  Your real-time dashboard.
  Shows where a problem exists right now.

• LogSim
  Your analytics and simulation suite.
  Explains how long the problem existed, why it happened, and provides raw logs for Excel / Python / R analysis.

Use Bottleneck to spot the fire.
Use LogSim to analyze the cause — and prevent it permanently.

🚀 Key Features

⚡ Advanced Power Analysis

• Accurate per-second power tracking
• Supports multiple isolated electric networks
• Optional global electric network for unified analysis

🏭 Pollution Tracking

• Continuous pollution monitoring
• Per-surface compatible (Space Age / multi-planet ready)

🔧 Machine State Logging

• Explicit states instead of vague indicators
• Timestamped and reproducible

📦 Inventory & Buffer Monitoring

• High-precision tracking of registered chests and tanks
• Transparent buffer behavior across the supply chain

🧹 Simulation Reset (Clean-Room Testing)

• Clear:
• belts
• machines
• buffers
• ground items
• pollution
• Optional reset of Factorio statistics
• Protected entities remain untouched

🌍 Multi-Surface Support

• Designed for Space Age and multi-planet factories
• Per-surface protocol lines

🧮 Asset Analysis: Fixed Assets & Working Capital (NEW)

LogSim now goes beyond operational metrics and enters logistics economics.

🏗 Fixed Assets – Blueprint Inventory

Open any blueprint and extract:
- Machines
- Infrastructure
- Tiles
- Footprint (area)
- Full production cost breakdown:
- raw materials
- production time
- energy consumption

This represents your installed capital (Anlagevermögen).

🔄 Working Capital Portfolio (NEW)

Under the fixed-asset inventory, LogSim now computes a Working Capital Portfolio:

• Automatically detects all items that exist or can exist in your factory:
• Items in registered chests and tanks
• Items in machine input/output/fuel buffers
• Items that machines are configured to produce
• Each item appears once (portfolio view)
• For each item, LogSim calculates unit costs (per 1 item):
• production time
• energy consumption
• raw material requirements

Quantities are intentionally not multiplied here.
Your protocol already logs quantities per second — allowing precise time-based valuation later.

This mirrors real-world practice:
- Production programs and bills of material include parts with zero current stock
- Items may be produced internally or purchased externally
- The portfolio defines what capital can be tied up, not just what currently is

🛠 How to Use

Register Entities

• Hover over any machine or chest
• Press SHIFT + R
• A marker appears and the entity is registered

Protect Critical Assets

• Press SHIFT + P
• Protected entities are excluded from simulation resets

Activate / Pause Protocol Logging /prot on -or- /prot off

Analyze Data

• Press SHIFT + B to open the Log Buffer
• Logs are exported as compact, machine-readable strings:

Run Experiments

• Use the Reset UI to create standardized test runs
• Compare layouts objectively

⌨️ Hotkeys (Default)

⌨️ Commands

📈 Performance & Scalability

Designed for large-scale factories and teaching scenarios:

• Default sampling: once per second (configurable)
• Optimized string handling (table.concat)
• Marker updates only when needed
• Minimal UPS impact even with many registered entities

🎓 Background & Motivation

LogSim is part of a broader exploration of using Factorio as a serious logistics and systems simulation platform — for consulting, research, and teaching.

More background and examples:
https://martins-wahre-logistik.blogspot.com/2026/01/using-factorio-as-logistics-simulation.html