The Sim City Planning Guide: SimCity BuildIt Unit Cost ($/Minute of Build Time)

SimCity BuildIt Unit Cost ($/Minute of Build Time) - Raw Goods + Commercial Building Assembly

Note: The page below calculates $/minute of total build time, including the time it takes the factories to make the raw goods such as metal, wood and plastic. Because some of the raw goods take a really long time to build (animal feed, electronic components) these calculations favor items that don't use those long term raw goods. To remove this skew, I've created an alternative set of calculations that only take into consideration the time spent in commercial buildings. I believe this alternate method to be a more realistic way to look at which items you should build. You can see those calculations on the SimCity BuildIt - Fastest Way to Make Money page.

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What item will net you the highest profit per minute in SimCity BuildIt? What item should you purchase instead of waste time waiting for? To discover the answers to this question I calculated the minimum build times for every item in the game. My results can be found below.

A few notes on these calculations:
I assumed that when possible, raw goods would be manufactured at the same time. For example, if metal and plastic is needed, only the plastic time was carried forward. The "Critical Path" column lists the raw good with the longest build time. If you want to shorten the overall build time, the critical path item would be a good one to purchase.

Occasionally, raw goods are manufactured in the same building so you can only do one at a time. I took that into account when calculating the times as well. Thus if you need nails and planks, I assumed you'd build the metal and wood at the same time and then build nails and planks in succession at the Building Supply Store.

Note that these are for a single item. You can do much better on the $/min calculation by making batches of larger quanitites. If you do that, you'll get completely different numbers.

Let me know if you find any mistakes in my calculations or have a question.

Special thanks to karincanada62@gmail.com who started compiling some of these numbers, giving me a head start.

List of abbreviations:
Max Value = maximum value if selling on the global marketplace
Time = hours:minutes
Materials Required = raw goods needed to assemble items
Critical Path = raw good with longest assembly time.
Raw M = minimum time to manufacture raw materials
Ass'y = time to assemble item in factory
Total = minimum time to manufacture raw goods and assemble item for export (hours:minutes)
Min = minutes
$/Min = Dollars per minute of total time required

Item	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Nails	80	2 Metal	Metal	0:01	0:05	0:06	6	13.33
Metal	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:01	0:01	1	10.00
Chairs	300	2 Wood, 1 Nail, 1 Hammer	Hammer	0:17	0:20	0:37	37	8.11
Tables	500	1 Plank, 2 Nails, 1 Hammer	Plank + 2 Nails	0:43	0:30	1:13	73	6.85
Wood	20	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:03	0:03	3	6.67
Burgers	3,620	1 Beef, 1 Bread Roll, 1 BBQ Grill	Breadroll	9:45	0:35	10:20	620	5.84
Hammer	90	1 Metal, 1 Wood	Wood	0:03	0:14	0:17	17	5.29
Ice Cream Sandwich	2,560	1 Bread Roll, 1 Cream	2 Creams	8:30	0:14	8:44	524	4.89
Lemonade Bottle	1,690	2 Glass, 2 Sugar & Spice, 1 Fruit & Berries	Glass	5:00	1:00	6:00	360	4.69
Cooking Utensils	250	2 Metal, 2 Plastic, 2 Wood	Plastic	0:09	0:45	0:54	54	4.63
Green Smoothie	1,150	2 Vegetables, 1 Fruit & Berries	Fruit & Berries	3:39	0:30	4:09	249	4.62
Garden Gnomes	1,600	2 Cement, 1 Glue	2 Cement	5:00	1:30	6:30	390	4.10
Cherry Cheesecake	2,240	1 Flour Bag, 1 Fruit & B., 1 Cheese	Cheese	7:45	1:30	9:15	555	4.04
Pizza	2,560	1 Flour Bag, 1 Cheese, 1 Beef	Beef	10:15	0:24	10:39	639	4.01
Vegetables	160	2 Seeds	Seeds	0:20	0:20	0:40	40	4.00
Grass	310	1 Seed, 1 Shovel	Shovel	0:39	0:30	1:09	79	3.92
Shovel	150	1 Metal, 1 Wood, 1 Plastic	Plastic	0:09	0:30	0:39	39	3.85
Shoes	980	2 Textiles, 1 Plastic, 1 Glue	Textiles/Glue	3:00	1:15	4:15	255	3.84
Bricks	190	2 Minerals	Mineral	0:30	0:20	0:50	50	3.80
Measuring Tape	110	1 Metal, 1 Plastic	Plastic	0:09	0:20	0:29	29	3.79
Bread Roll	1,840	2 Flour Bags, 1 Cream	Cream	7:15	1:00	8:15	495	3.72
Planks	120	2 Wood	Wood	0:03	0:30	0:33	33	3.64
Fruit & Berries	730	2 Seeds, 1 Tree Sapling	Tree Sapling	2:09	1:30	3:39	219	3.33
Donuts	950	1 Flour Bag, 1 Sugar & Spices	Sugar & Spices	4:00	0:45	4:45	285	3.33
Tree Saplings	420	2 Seeds, 1 Shovel	Shovel	0:39	1:30	2:09	129	3.26
Fire Pit	1,740	2 Bricks, 1 Shovel, 2 Cement	2 Cement	5:00	4:00	9:00	540	3.22
Business Suits	1,170	3 Textiles, 1 Measuring T., 1 Glue	Textiles/Glue	3:00	3:30	6:30	390	3.00
Plastic	25	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:09	0:09	9	2.78
Flour Bag	570	2 Seeds, 2 Textiles	Textiles	3:00	0:30	3:30	210	2.71
Couch	1,810	3 Textiles, 1 Drill, 1 Glue	Drill	9:00	2:30	11:30	690	2.62
Garden Furniture	820	2 Planks, 2 Plastic, 2 Textiles	Textiles	3:00	2:15	5:15	315	2.60
Frozen Yogurt.	1,750	1 Fruit & B., 1 Cream, 1 Sugar & Spices	Cream	7:15	4:00	11:15	675	2.59
Cement	440	2 Minerals, 1 Chemical	Chemical	2:00	0:50	2:50	170	2.59
Cap	600	2 Textiles, 1 Measuring Tape	Textiles	3:00	1:00	4:00	240	2.50
Glue	440	1 Plastic, 2 Chemicals	Chemical	2:00	1:00	3:00	180	2.44
BBQ Grill	530	3 Metal, 1 Cooking Utensil	Cooking Utensil	0:54	2:45	3:39	219	2.42
Home Textiles	610	2 Textiles, 1 Measuring Tape	Textiles	3:00	1:15	4:15	255	2.39
TV	1,280	2 Plastic, 2 Glass, 2 Electrical Comp.	Electrical Comp.	7:00	2:30	9:30	570	2.25
Cheese Fries	1,050	1 Vegetable, 1 Cheese	Cheese	7:45	0:20	8:05	485	2.16
Lighting System	890	1 Chemical, 1 Electrical Comp, 1 Glass	Electrical Comp.	7:00	1:45	8:45	525	1.70
Beef	860	3 Animal Feed	Animal Feed	6:00	2:30	8:30	510	1.69
Refridgerator	1,060	2 Plastic, 2 Chemical, 2 Electrical Comp.	Electrical Comp.	7:00	3:30	10:30	630	1.68
Seeds	30	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:20	0:20	20	1.50
Watch	580	2 Plastic, 1 Glass, 1 Chemical	Glass	5:00	1:30	6:30	390	1.49
Cheese	660	2 Animal Feed	Animal Feed	6:00	1:45	7:45	465	1.42
Minerals	40	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:30	0:30	30	1.33
Drill	590	2 Metal, 2 Plastic, 1 Electrical Comp.	Electrical Comp.	7:00	2:00	9:00	540	1.09
Cream	440	1 Animal Feed	Animal Feed	6:00	1:15	7:15	435	1.01
Chemicals	60	N/A	N/A	N/A	2:00	2:00	120	0.50
Textiles	90	N/A	N/A	N/A	3:00	3:00	180	0.50
Sugar & Spices	110	N/A	N/A	N/A	4:00	4:00	240	0.46
Glass	120	N/A	N/A	N/A	5:00	5:00	300	0.40
Animal Feed	140	N/A	N/A	N/A	6:00	6:00	360	0.39
Electrical Components	160	N/A	N/A	N/A	7:00	7:00	420	0.38

Factory	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Metal	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:01	0:01	1	10.00
Wood	20	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:03	0:03	3	6.67
Plastic	25	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:09	0:09	9	2.78
Seeds	30	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:20	0:20	20	1.50
Minerals	40	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:30	0:30	30	1.33
Chemicals	60	N/A	N/A	N/A	2:00	2:00	120	0.50
Textiles	90	N/A	N/A	N/A	3:00	3:00	180	0.50
Sugar & Spices	110	N/A	N/A	N/A	4:00	4:00	240	0.46
Glass	120	N/A	N/A	N/A	5:00	5:00	300	0.40
Animal Feed	140	N/A	N/A	N/A	6:00	6:00	360	0.39
Electrical Components	160	N/A	N/A	N/A	7:00	7:00	420	0.38

Building Supplies Store	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Nails	80	2 Metal	Metal	0:01	0:05	0:06	6	13.33
Planks	120	2 Wood	Wood	0:03	0:30	0:33	33	3.64
Bricks	190	2 Minerals	Mineral	0:30	0:20	0:50	50	3.80
Cement	440	2 Minerals, 1 Chemical	Chemical	2:00	0:50	2:50	170	2.59
Glue	440	1 Plastic, 2 Chemicals	Chemical	2:00	1:00	3:00	180	2.44

Hardware Store	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Hammer	90	1 Metal, 1 Wood	Wood	0:03	0:14	0:17	17	5.29
Measuring Tape	110	1 Metal, 1 Plastic	Plastic	0:09	0:20	0:29	29	3.79
Shovel	150	1 Metal, 1 Wood, 1 Plastic	Plastic	0:09	0:30	0:39	39	3.85
Cooking Utensils	250	2 Metal, 2 Plastic, 2 Wood	Plastic	0:09	0:45	0:54	54	4.63
Drill	590	2 Metal, 2 Plastic, 1 Electrical Comp.	Electrical Comp.	7:00	2:00	9:00	540	1.09

Farmers Market	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Vegetables	160	2 Seeds	Seeds	0:20	0:20	0:40	40	4.00
Flour Bag	570	2 Seeds, 2 Textiles	Textiles	3:00	0:30	3:30	210	2.71
Fruit & Berries	730	2 Seeds, 1 Tree Sapling	Tree Sapling	2:09	1:30	3:39	219	3.33
Cream	440	1 Animal Feed	Animal Feed	6:00	1:15	7:15	435	1.01
Cheese	660	2 Animal Feed	Animal Feed	6:00	1:45	7:45	465	1.42
Beef	860	3 Animal Feed	Animal Feed	6:00	2:30	8:30	510	1.69

Furniture Store	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Chairs	300	2 Wood, 1 Nail, 1 Hammer	Hammer	0:17	0:20	0:37	37	8.11
Tables	500	1 Plank, 2 Nails, 1 Hammer	Plank + 2 Nails	0:43	0:30	1:13	73	6.85
Home Textiles	610	2 Textiles, 1 Measuring Tape	Textiles	3:00	1:15	4:15	255	2.39
Couch	1,810	3 Textiles, 1 Drill, 1 Glue	Drill	9:00	2:30	11:30	690	2.62

Gardening Supplies	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Grass	310	1 Seed, 1 Shovel	Shovel	0:39	0:30	1:09	79	3.92
Tree Saplings	420	2 Seeds, 1 Shovel	Shovel	0:39	1:30	2:09	129	3.26
Garden Furniture	820	2 Planks, 2 Plastic, 2 Textiles	Textiles	3:00	2:15	5:15	315	2.60
Fire Pit	1,740	2 Bricks, 1 Shovel, 2 Cement	2 Cement	5:00	4:00	9:00	540	3.22
Garden Gnomes	1,600	2 Cement, 1 Glue	2 Cement	5:00	1:30	6:30	390	4.10

Donut Shop	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Donuts	950	1 Flour Bag, 1 Sugar & Spices	Sugar & Spices	4:00	0:45	4:45	285	3.33
Green Smoothie	1,150	2 Vegetables, 1 Fruit & Berries	Fruit & Berries	3:39	0:30	4:09	249	4.62
Bread Roll	1,840	2 Flour Bags, 1 Cream	Cream	7:15	1:00	8:15	495	3.72
Cherry Cheesecake	2,240	1 Flour Bag, 1 Fruit & B., 1 Cheese	Cheese	7:45	1:30	9:15	555	4.04
Frozen Yogurt.	1,750	1 Fruit & B., 1 Cream, 1 Sugar & Spices	Cream	7:15	4:00	11:15	675	2.59

Fashion Store	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Cap	600	2 Textiles, 1 Measuring Tape	Textiles	3:00	1:00	4:00	240	2.50
Shoes	980	2 Textiles, 1 Plastic, 1 Glue	Textiles/Glue	3:00	1:15	4:15	255	3.84
Watch	580	2 Plastic, 1 Glass, 1 Chemical	Glass	5:00	1:30	6:30	390	1.49
Business Suits	1,170	3 Textiles, 1 Measuring T., 1 Glue	Textiles/Glue	3:00	3:30	6:30	390	3.00

Fast Food Restaurant	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
Ice Cream Sandwich	2,560	1 Bread Roll, 1 Cream	2 Creams	8:30	0:14	8:44	524	4.89
Pizza	2,560	1 Flour Bag, 1 Cheese, 1 Beef	Beef	10:15	0:24	10:39	639	4.01
Burgers	3,620	1 Beef, 1 Bread Roll, 1 BBQ Grill	Breadroll	9:45	0:35	10:20	620	5.84
Cheese Fries	1,050	1 Vegetable, 1 Cheese	Cheese	7:45	0:20	8:05	485	2.16
Lemonade Bottle	1,690	2 Glass, 2 Sugar & Spice, 1 Fruit & B.	Glass	5:00	1:00	6:00	360	4.69

Home Appliances	Max $	Materials Required	Critical Path	Raw M.	Ass'y	Total	Min	$/Min
BBQ Grill	530	3 Metal, 1 Cooking Utensil	Cooking Utensil	0:54	2:45	3:39	219	2.42
Refridgerator	1,060	2 Plastic, 2 Chemical, 2 Electrical Comp.	Electrical Comp.	7:00	3:30	10:30	630	1.68
Lighting System	890	1 Chemical, 1 Electrical Comp, 1 Glass	Electrical Comp.	7:00	1:45	8:45	525	1.70
TV	1,280	2 Plastic, 2 Glass, 2 Electrical Comp.	Electrical Comp.	7:00	2:30	9:30	570	2.25

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27 comments:

UnknownFebruary 1, 2015 at 4:25 AM
I hope you don't mind that I have suggestions for improvement: Right now, you're sheet says that it's probably for the best to just produce nails and nothing else. But that's not the truth. My post will be very long, I'm afraid, because I want to demonstrate that it is important to see the whole picture. For this reason I will show a method how to calculate the profit considering selling several different items. Right now you are just considering parallel building on the same "level" of factory or store. For example for a chair you calculate 2 woods (3 minutes, level 1), 1 Nail and 1 Hammer (hammer takes longer with 14 minutes, level 2) and 1 chair (20 minutes, level 3). So you calculate a need of 3 m + 14 m + 20 m = 37 minutes. But most people would implement it as an assembly line. The three levels are therefore produced in parallel!!! Thus you don't get a chair every 37 minutes, but every 20 minutes because its production in the Furniture Store is the bottleneck.
So this would lead to a profit of 15$/min instead of 8.11$/min. But this still isn't the total truth, because the wood, metal, nail and hammer needed for its production could as well be sold separately AND we can produce and sell other stuff parallel to building the chair. For this reason, I would suggest giving two parameters for each item: The first being $ revenue per item and the second a tuple or vector of how many slots of which store are occupied during an hour. Here is an example of the chair:
One chair gives 300 $. Each chair takes 3 wood and 3 metal (for the nails, the hammer and the chair itself) which takes a total of 12 minutes in the Factories. Then we have 5 minutes for the nails in the Building Supply Store, 14 minutes in the Hardware Store and 20 minutes in the Furniture Store. Dividing all these times through 60 minutes, we will get the "item slots occupied during one hour" for producing a single chair: 0.2 in the Factory, 0.0833 in Building Supply Store, 0.233 in the Hardware Store and 0.333 in the Furniture Store or short as a vector: (0.2/0.0833/0.233/0.333) for 300$ revenue.
So if you only produce chairs, the result in one hour is (multiply by 3): (0.6/0.25/0.7/1) for 900$.
What you can see now: there's plenty of time to produce left. The Building Supply Store doesn't produce anything 75% of the time and in the Factories it's even worse: With 5 simple factories you can have 15 slots occupied at the same time, but for the chairs we need only 0.6!!!. Continued in next post...
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UnknownFebruary 1, 2015 at 4:26 AM
...Continuation of previous post. So lets see the other vectors:

Metal: (0.0167/0/0/0) for 10 $
Wood: (0.05/0/0/0) for 20 $
Nails: (0.0333/0.0833/0/0) for 80 $
Hammer: (0.0667/0/0.233/0) for 90 $

Now we can add up all these vectors until the maximum of 1 (or 15 for the first number in case of 5 simple factories) is reached. For example:
900 Metal for 9000 $ (15/0/0/0)
300 Wood for 6000 $ (15/0/0/0)
12 Nails for 960 $ (0.4/1/0/0) AND 876 Metal for 8760 $ (14.6/0/0/0) adding up to 9720 $ (15/1/0/0)
4.286 Hammers (don't get confused by this, it's correct) for 385.7 $ (0.286/0/1/0) AND 12 Nails for 960 $ (0.4/1/0/0) AND 858.86 Metal for 8588.6 $ (14.31/0/0/0) adding up to 9934.3 $ (15/1/1/0)
3 Chairs for 900 $ (0.6/0.25/0.7/1) AND 9 Nails for 720 $ (0.3/0.75/0/0) AND 846 Metal for 8460 $ (14.1/0/0/0) adding up to 10080 $ (15/1/0.7/1)
3 Chairs for 900 $ (0.6/0.25/0.7/1) AND 1.286 Hammers for 115.7 $ (0.0857/0/0.3/0) AND 9 Nails for 720 $ (0.3/0.75/0/0) AND 840.86 Metal for 8408.6 $ (14,014/0/0/0) adding up to 10144,3 $ (15/1/1/1)

From this you can see that (at least regarding this VERY limited variety of items) the most profitable way is to have all your shops running at all time. But you have to do a lot of micromanagement for an only 12.7% gain over just selling metal (well, if you could sell the metal, which you probably cannot). There are a lot of other items and shops to consider, of course. For a final result on what to produce for maximum profit, I'd have to write a program (or at least an Excel Sheet). But I hope that I could demonstrate that your sheet, which puts Nails on top, is not enough to see the whole picture.

Maybe I'll write a little Java program next month which calculates the best profit strategy depending on the shops and items you have unlocked/built/want to use (For example if you want to produce only items with long waiting time, so you don't have to get in the game every few minutes or so).
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Randy RobertsFebruary 1, 2015 at 3:09 PM
Yes, you're absolutely correct in that when running multiples in tandem, or in an assembly line, you'd get completely different numbers. When doing my research I couldn't find a complete chart with unit costs, so decided to make it myself. That's what we have here. I would love to see the results if you do make a program to figure out the assembly line costs. I suspect the results may change based on the number in the batch as well, but who knows. All I know is it's complicated. :) My brain hurt after making this chart.
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Chris FiorentinoFebruary 5, 2015 at 7:11 AM
I don't get the last column at all and it has a fatal flaw. It assumes we can do 10 nails at exactly the same time, which is not possible. We can do 10 metal at a time, so the metal time total is 1 minute, but the nails total time has to be 50 minutes, not 5. So the total time has to be 51 minutes, not 6. So you should divide 80, which is the max $ you get for 10 nails, by 51, which is the correct time it takes to actually build 10 nails at an absolute minimum. So your last column for nails should be 80/51 or $1.57. Any other amount in the column is both false and completely misleading. Agreed?
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UnknownFebruary 15, 2015 at 9:31 AM
I'm currently level 40, pop 620000, 20k tax/day, simoleons 660000, simcash 200, but I must say I never analyzed the numbers as much as the above folks did. Kudos for the great work breaking all these numbers down. A slow and steady build was my method, always staying with-in the invisible upward channel. Build high then wide, watching out for the magic unlock levels and having cash ready for the new essential services. Ignore the non-essential services requests from your sims like education until well past level 20. Great time to build up your keys with easy cargo ship loads. Amass 100 keys if you can early on!

Looking at this post from a least micromanagement angle, I recommend a mass TV built (even on the PC version TV selling was a cash cow). This will become available for those hitting level 38, but the same idea could be used for lower levels like mass beef at level 27. Again, it is designed for those who don't want to spend a lot of time just making and selling, versus mass nails which is more profitable but way more time consuming.

Here is an example plan, which only uses raw factory items:

10 TV Built Plan = $12,800 sell every 32hr = $400/hour = $6.66/min

Factory 1 [Plastic x 5] 9min twice =>10 plastics
Factory 2 [Glass x 5] 5hr + wait 2hr
Factory 3 [Glass x 5] 5hr + wait 2hr =>10 glass
Factory 4 [Chips x 5] 7hr
Factory 5 [Chips x 5] 7hr =>10 chips
+
Home Appliance [5 open slots] 2hr30min x 5 = 12hr30min twice = 25hr
=
32hr for 10 TVs

Start your build as listed above.
Log out of game at the 18min mark, once your plastic is completed.
Come back in 6hr 42min to start making your TVs (and re-queue your factories).
Log out again and come back in 12hr30min to post your TVs to your trade depot for $6,400.
Start making your second set of TVs ... repeat.

BTW, if any EA game developers are reading this, for the love of god please fix the global trade depot. The constant listing of items for sale, which are sold by the time you reach the other city, is beyond annoying. We all know which items are highly sought after, but you cannot buy them at any price. Recommend you create some auction feature where people can post items like eBay, with a $1 starting bid and NO MAX LIMIT. Both the seller and buyer wins. A fixed max price just does not work for higher levels with so many people playing. Heck, allow items to be traded for SimCash!

Oh, while I am making recommendations on game efficiencies, the SimCash balancing needs fixing. I'd perhaps buy some Google Play credits, but at $1US per $56SimCash ratio (based on the Nice Pile of SimCash) it is not in line with similar games credits, for example Clash of Clans $1US per $108Gems ratio (based on Sack of Gems). Bottom line, SimCash should only be used for building slots. If I wanted to buy a rare item that cannot be found in the global trade depot (e.g Dozer Wheel), I am not blowing $24SimCash per item when we only have a running balance of $200-$250 SimCash. I regularly spend Gems in Clash of Clans because you are rewarded for time spend in the game. I could spend 24hr in SimCity and no SimCash would come my way, except if I complete major city achievements. $3SimCash reward for building 2 nuclear plants! Why bother.

Hoping future updates to the game make it even more enjoyable.
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UnknownMay 9, 2015 at 9:46 PM
I have a similar chart where I don't consider raw items time production for the final ones, since it only impacts the first item being produced. If you apply a just in time method for the item you are planing to put in a production line, you only have to take in consideration the manufactured items that can be your bottleneck. That being said, it's not hard to figure the most profitable item is the donut, getting close to 30$/min.
Another item I would consider to go with it, would be the watch, since it only needs raw materials and won't bother your other stores whenever you need to produce different items, which happens with the donuts since it uses two different stores.
Anyway, the game get's to a point where money isn't your game bottleneck, and your main concern is, as I figure, to be the same as most players, which is getting expansion items. I'm currently stuck on that part.
I hope that my tips at least help any newcomers or people strugling to make some initial cash, but don't worry, after you set 2 big stations of each basic service that operate in area (fire fighters, cops and hospitals), the rest is pretty much up to you, going clean on energy and factories and filling your town with parks... that's pretty much it.
PS: if donuts are not yet avaiable to you, go with flour bags. If that's not avaiable, go with cement. If you are not there yet... well, you might wanna stick with nails as mentioned previously \o/
Have a good time!
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UnknownMay 29, 2015 at 3:13 PM
The last thing to consider is demand. You can crank out Metal for example and probably sit on it for a long time versus Textiles or tools that get purchased quickly. If there isn't anyone buying the items you create you have earned nothing. It's better to create lower per minute items that sell quickly than a maximum profit items that sits for a long time.
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cregilJune 30, 2015 at 12:38 PM
Consider, for example, the bread roll.

It is listed as 495 minutes.

It is not-- it is 705.

Flour and Cream are made serially, because they are in the same production outlet-- Farmer's Market.

A sack of flour takes 210 minutes and cream takes 435 minutes. That is 645 minutes before you start the bread, for a total of 705; and so only $2.60/minute..

There are several such serial, rather than consecutive, production times as of my level 34.

Here are where I differ from your numbers:

Hammer, 34 minutes $2.65
Chair, 54, $5.56 (because of hammer)
Table, 69, $7.24 (plank and nails are serial for 39 + table production of 30)
Grass, 69, 4.49 (you have an extra ten minutes)
Fire Pit, 640, $2.72 (bricks & cement are serial)
Gnome, 440, $3.64 (cement & glue are serial)
Smoothie, 289, $3.98 (veggie and fruit are serial)
Bread, 705, $2.60 (already mentioned)
Cheesecake, 984, $2.28 (flour, fruit and cheese are all serial)
Yogurt, 894, $1.96 (fruit and cream are serial)
Ice Cream Sandwich, 719, $3.56 (705 for bread+14=719, note: make sure you start the flour before the cream)
Pizza, 1185, $2.16 (flour, cheese, and beef are all serial)
Fries, 525, $2.00 (veggies and cheese are serial)

It is nice to see we thought it out the same way—and an easy way to check my work.
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Randy RobertsJune 30, 2015 at 4:07 PM
Here’s an explanation of how I got my number for the bread roll.
At 12:00 you start making 4 seeds, 2 textiles and 1 animal feed.
At 12:20 the seeds are done, but you can’t do anything with them because you’re waiting on textiles so you can make flour.
At 3:00 the textiles are done so you start making flour.
At 3:30 the first flour is done. You start the second.
At 4:00 both flours are done but you’re still waiting on the cream to make your bread roll.
At 6:00, the animal feed is finally made, and you start the cream.
At 7:15 the cream is done and you start the bread roll.
At 8:15 the bread roll is done.
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Michael GraffSeptember 25, 2015 at 1:26 AM
Once you fill the pipeline to keep your bread maker supplied, it does not take this long. You don't generally make just one animal feed, for instance, you make 5, and those are done in parallel. The steady state is dependent on how many things you can make in your factories, store in your inventory, and keep your factories pumping out end products.
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Randy RobertsSeptember 25, 2015 at 8:51 AM
You're right. That's why I had the disclaimer in bold red letters: "Note that these are for a single item. You can do much better on the $/min calculation by making batches of larger quanitites. If you do that, you'll get completely different numbers." It's also why I took a new look at these calculations excluding the raw good factories. I assumed that you had an infinite supply of goods from the factories and only counted time in the commercial stores, which is where the primary bottlenecks occur. That can be seen at http://www.simcityplanningguide.com/2015/08/simcity-buildit-fastest-way-to-make-money.html
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UnknownDecember 31, 2015 at 8:09 AM
I made my own list yesterday, before I found this page today...
http://simcity.jgd.se/?maxlevel=3 ut uses a php script(82rows) and the item database in json format(49rows)
Metal/Wod/Plastics are set to low Cost since the are hopless to sell in quantity.

Im at level 28 so all items are not yet visible for me but as far as I can tell, the part still needed is to put weight on production facilities to count time in th Gardening shop as Low and Building Supplies as High.
It does not matter if it takes long time in a place that can do nothing more profitable/hour.

Profit column is sale price - all i could have got for selling the ingrediences

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UnknownJanuary 28, 2016 at 1:39 PM
great to flick through this post but I was hoping for a single answer ha ha. I'll question another way.

if I'm playing for 3 hours what should I produce to sell to maximise profits? assuming I habe no stock so need to produce raw materials.

I'm on level 21 and have 16 production spots in factories and building stores, hardware, furniture and farmers market.

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LucasAugust 21, 2016 at 10:33 AM
You're not taking the time to collect and post items for sale, as well as the bottleneck factor in overlapping raw goods production to manufactured item product and unless you have no life, you're sitting and baby sitting the game or setting an alarm your probably loosing time out of neglecting items that have already finished. A more sensible and realistic option is to manufacture items based on your personal schedule. i.e., if you're about to go to bed, consider manufacturing items that may take longer.
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UnknownJanuary 29, 2017 at 2:33 AM
1 bread roll takes 51 minute unless you mean all the items to make for it before its started taken into consideration? but then my commercial buildings mostly upgraded as am at lvl 47 now
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UnknownJanuary 22, 2019 at 5:30 AM
You forgot Corn
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Beer o clock clubJanuary 31, 2019 at 12:25 PM
On a lazy Sunday, I prepared an Excel sheet too look for a combination of products to produce that would maximize the amount of simoleons I would get for selling them on the market. There are few things to take in mind when trying to get the best combination:
- the factories must be able to produce the basic materials
- The stores must be kept busy as well as possible to produce the items
- It must be manageable by a human being who is not playing the game 24/7
I found that by producing the combination blue textiles/garden furniture/donuts/sports caps/TVs, you could earn almost 39k simoleons a day, under the assumption that everything gets sold in your shop and you could manage it all. And the level of your city should be high enough that you can produce these items.
It is interesting to see that the burger shop is not used in this scenario. The items of the burger shop take up too way much time of the donut shop and farmers market to be efficient. From the raw materials, the glass, electrical components and sugar and spices could be produced at night, the rest during the day.
The above scenario has the nice advantage that each shop only has to produce 1 item, so you don’t have to think about when to change to a different item:
Building shop —> planks
Hardware shop —> measuring tape
Farmers market —> flour
Furniture shop —> blue textiles
Gardening shop —> garden chairs
Donut shop —> donuts
Fashion shop —> sports caps
Home appliances shop —> TVs
it becomes clear that building and hardware shop and farmers market are not completely filled all the time. It is therefore possible to produce more planks/tape/flour than required and sell those too on the market. Then about 60k could be made per day, although this would be quite cumbersome to manage. The normal scenario is already a challenge in my opinion.
It must be mentioned that the above numbers do not take into account that stores could be upgraded to produce 20% faster. Your earnings could thus be 20% higher.
Of note: I’ve calculated the whole thing through, with all factories and stores times and capacity included. In my sheet I can try any combination, but the above is optimal I think. If anyone wants me to try a different combination, please tell me.
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Beer o clock clubFebruary 1, 2019 at 6:14 AM
I made a mistake in my sheet: the total profit per 24h is about 78k. :)

Some more detailts, will be messy formatting, because I copied from excel.

First the number of factory resources that are needed per day for the above setup:
item value time [min] items to produce per hour items to produce per day
Metal 10 1 1.8 43
Wood 20 3 1.8 43
Plastic 25 9 3.5 84
Seeds 30 20 2.7 64
Minerals 40 30 0.0 0
Chemicals 60 120 0.0 0
Textiles 90 180 7.2 172
Sugar and Spices 110 240 1.3 32
Glass 120 300 0.8 19
Animal Feed 140 360 0.0 0
Electrical Components 160 420 0.8 19

So a lot of textiles required :)

Then the number of minutes each store is used per hour. so 60 is 100% occupied.

time used [min]
building 26.7
hardware 36.0
farmers 40.0
furniture 60.0
gardening 60.0
donut 60.0
fashion 60.0
fastfood 0.0
home app 60.0

Then the number of hours that the factories are not used. assuming 10 factories (from level 58) and 5 units per factory gives 3000 of factory minutes per hour building time (60 minutes * 10 factories * 5 units). so per day, each factory is not doing anything about 25% of the time. Which is decent, because overnight you cannot use them very efficiently.

resource number of factories total resources time per hour building time resource time used hours resources not used
10 3000 2276 5.8
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Beer o clock clubFebruary 1, 2019 at 6:45 AM
I've imported the spreadsheet in google spreadsheets. It seems to be working, It is very messy though. It will take me several hours again to understand myself how i set this sheet up. :) I did not spend any time to clear parts up or make things efficient. Things seem to be computed correct though :).

you can view it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H3Jp_fb2LddpsWzQCwJDoAT5cPGFPELArYTWjkhQm_o/edit?usp=sharing
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jcJuly 15, 2020 at 9:36 AM
Will you add Sporting Goods Store items to this list?
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BenApril 2, 2021 at 10:09 AM
This website is great , I have one suggestion
You should update the tables because there are new items in the app
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SimCity BuildIt Unit Cost ($/Minute of Build Time) - Raw Goods + Commercial Building Assembly

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