Flexible/Streamlined Lines - Pros/Cons?

[Grave461]

So, could someone explain to me what the benefit of Streamlined production lines are over Flexible? According to the game, and the wiki:

Flexible Line    1943  
+20% Production efficiency retention
+10% Production efficiency cap
Is mutually exclusive with Streamlined Line.

Streamlined Line    1943  
+10% Production efficiency growth
+10% Production efficiency cap
Is mutually exclusive with Flexible Line.

Based off this information, why would anyone choose Streamlined, when Flex line (at least on paper) is superior?

While on I'm the subject, same with Concentrated/Dispersed Industry:

Concentrated Industry I to V    1936-1943  
+15% Factory Output
+10% Dockyard Output
+20% Max Factories in a State
Is mutually exclusive with Dispersed Industry.
Effects are cumulative for each Technology level.

Dispersed Industry I    1936  
+10% Factory Output
+10% Dockyard Output
+10% Production Efficiency Retention
+5% Production Efficiency Base
+20% Conversion Speed Bonus
−10% Factory Bomb Vulnerability
+20% Max Factories in a State
Is mutually exclusive with Concentrated Industry.
Unlike level II through V, dispersed industry I also gives a +20% conversion speed bonus.

While Concentrated Industry does have an additional 5% factory output, Dispersed has several other bonuses that seem (again, on paper) clearly superior.

What am I missing here?

 

[dave1233]

Flexible line is better if you are swapping production lines over whereas streamlined line is better for new factories to gain efficiency.

While dispersed has a lot more advantages not all of them are very useful. Conversion is something you will not tend to do much of and hopefully you shouldn't be getting strat bombed. The main difference is the efficiency base and retention. Dispersed is better if you are swapping production lines over e.g. '36 fighters to '40 fighters of '41 mediums to '43 mediums but if you don't do much swapping over of lines the concentrated is better. It takes around 1 year for a new factory on concentrated to overtake a new dispersed factory in terms of total output and after that the concentrated one just pulls further and further ahead as long as the production isn't changed.

 

[ThuderLizard2]

I usually go with concentrated so I can build more MFs in my high infrastructure states and then flexible. But because of the broken AI the game is pretty much over by the time I get to this decision.

 

[DragonScythe]

While Concentrated Industry does have an additional 5% factory output, Dispersed has several other bonuses that seem (again, on paper) clearly superior.

What am I missing here?

Dispersed ends with +50% to production, concentrated ends with +75%.

 

[Grave461]

This is great information! Thank you for showing me the differences.

 

[Kaosium]

This is great information! Thank you for showing me the differences.

Another way of illustrating it is that even with 1939 tech when the gap is only 15% (for concentrated versus dispersed industry, that is often the difference between either having to add another factory for some items or taking the chance of not getting all you want/need. For some it will be only one factory, but since there's so many different categories it all adds up, and for some like INF weapons it will be 3 or more depending on the position you're playing. You add those up and it comes to a significant sum, enough so that you can add another line or more to fighters and not have to worry much about your factories being bombed and even have some left over for other things you might desire.

As for streamlined versus flexible, it's a little closer, but while you won't retain as much you'll grow faster and even if you're not going to be building all that many more mil facs after a while, the ones you capture will grow noticeably faster, and hopefully there will be a lot more of those than for equipment you're upgrading.