I Locked My Goods… and My Factory Stopped

I discovered the lock button in my warehouse and thought it was perfect.

I had some materials that I wanted to save.

I did not want my factories to use them yet.

I did not want to accidentally move them to the market.

So I locked the goods.

They were still visible in my warehouse.

The quantity was still there.

Everything looked safe.

Then one of my factories stopped.

At first, I did not connect the two things.

The Materials Were Right There

The materials were in the warehouse, but they were locked away from the factory.

I opened the warehouse and checked again.

The factory needed supplies.

My warehouse had those supplies.

So why was nothing happening?

I checked the employees.

They were still assigned.

I checked the warehouse capacity.

There was still some space.

I checked the factory again.

It still looked like it was waiting for materials.

That made no sense to me.

The goods were only one page away.

Then I remembered that I had locked them.

Locked Goods Cannot Be Used

Locked goods may still be visible in the warehouse, but factories cannot use them.

Locked goods remain in the warehouse, but factories and shops cannot use them until they are unlocked.

That explained everything.

The warehouse showed that I owned the goods.

But the factory did not see them as available supplies.

To the factory, those locked materials might as well not have existed.

The lock had done exactly what it was supposed to do.

The problem was that I had forgotten what I was protecting the goods from.

I was not only protecting them from myself.

I was also protecting them from my own supply chain.

My Warehouse Total Was Misleading Me

The warehouse showed 500 units, but the factory still could not use them.

Before this happened, I mainly looked at the total quantity.

If I had 500 units of something, I thought my company had 500 units ready to use.

But that was not always true.

Some goods might be locked.

Some goods might already be reserved for another plan.

Some might be needed by more than one factory.

The number in the warehouse was only the beginning.

I also needed to know how much was actually available.

Locked goods still take up warehouse space, too.

That meant I could fill my warehouse with materials that my factories were not allowed to use.

If the warehouse became full, production could stop because newly produced goods had nowhere to go.

One small decision could affect both sides of my company.

A factory could lack usable supplies.

Another factory could lack warehouse space.

I Had Locked Too Much

The lock feature was useful.

My mistake was locking almost everything.

I wanted to keep the materials safe for a future plan, but I had not checked how much my active factories still needed.

I protected tomorrow’s production by stopping today’s.

That was not what I intended.

Once I unlocked some of the goods, the factory could continue again.

Nothing else had been wrong.

The employees were ready.

The warehouse had the materials.

The factory had simply been blocked from using them.

Now I Lock Goods With a Reason

Rex learns that locking goods can help, but only when it is part of a clear supply plan.

I still use the lock feature.

It can help when I am saving goods for a future factory, preparing something for the market, or stopping one part of my chain from consuming everything.

But now I ask one question first:

What will happen if these goods become unavailable?

If an active factory needs them, I make sure enough units remain unlocked.

If a shop depends on them, I check its stock too.

And if my warehouse is already crowded, I avoid locking more than I really need.

The lock button was never the problem.

My mistake was thinking that locked goods were still active goods.

They were safe.

They were visible.

They were mine.

But until I unlocked them, my company could not use them.