LEX ASTRA ACADEMY IO 160 / Industrial planning and cost decisions Lex Astra · School of Applied Industry Teaching edition 2956.3 / Tabletop ———————————————————————————————————————————————— LEARNER WORKSHEET For industrial planners comparing resource commitments and expected returns. This is a private working copy. Downloading submits nothing and records no completion. Use exercise identifiers, not private player information. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— SESSION DETAILS Learner identifier: ____________________________________________________________ Instructor / assessor: ____________________________________________________________ Session date / agreed role or variant: ____________________________________________________________ Vessel, configuration and equipment: ____________________________________________________________ LIVE build / capability test date / tested by (if practical): ____________________________________________________________ Stop signal / recovery contact / communication arrangement: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— PURPOSE Choose an industrial job using a cost comparison that another planner can reproduce. COURSE CONTEXT The industrial school carries Case IO–4 beyond counting: the second trip and the receiving work belong in the choice, not outside the cost sheet. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— ENTRY Complete: IO 102 Equipment: The course price and capacity assumptions, a calculator and worksheet. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— CASE: The higher sale price is not the better job 1. Case currency is training credits, not a live price quote. Job A returns 100 and costs 20; Job B returns 130 and costs 60. 2. A needs four spaces; B needs six. Initially six spaces are assumed available. 3. The session capacity check confirms only four spaces. Additional-trip cost has not been supplied. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE AND GAME SKILLS Calculate a real industrial return Practical instruction revision 1 / 9 October 2026 Use executable quotes Read the commodity, unit, available quantity and destination price from the relevant terminal. Record time and location; a community price table is a scouting aid, not a promise of stock or demand. Distinguish profit on cargo you own from a hauling fee for cargo supplied by a contract. Do not charge the supplied cargo’s full market value as your purchase cost. Count the complete operating cycle Include acquisition or contract fee, fuel, repairs, refining, loading and sale travel. Record active crew time separately from a refinery’s elapsed processing time. In a teaching example, proceeds of 120,000 aUEC less 80,000 purchase and 10,000 operating costs leave 30,000 before other costs. If the complete cycle took ninety minutes, that is 20,000 per hour, not the rate implied by a ten-minute flight. Protect working capital Retain enough funds and capacity for recovery and the next viable job rather than filling every available SCU with the highest quoted margin. Compare a smaller confirmed sale with a larger load dependent on uncertain demand. Recalculate using a lower sale price and an extra trip; explain which change makes the job unattractive before committing funds. PRACTICAL DRILL Price one hauling job and one owned-cargo or refining cycle using observed terminal values. Record complete cycle times and rework both accounts after a receiver quantity reduction. OBSERVED-SKILL CHECKS Units and actual quoted quantities are consistent. My action / observed result / assistance / evidence reference: ____________________________________________________________ Live, simulated or unobserved: ____________________________________________________________ Net return includes the full cycle rather than flight time alone. My action / observed result / assistance / evidence reference: ____________________________________________________________ Live, simulated or unobserved: ____________________________________________________________ The learner identifies the price or delay that reverses the recommendation. My action / observed result / assistance / evidence reference: ____________________________________________________________ Live, simulated or unobserved: ____________________________________________________________ Apply the technical checks in the agreed role. Discussion and simulation do not certify live handling; Crew Support evidence does not confer Pilot qualification. GAME REFERENCES The linked pages were read for this revision. Community references mix release eras; each source note identifies what is used and what is excluded. Technical explanations below are an Academy synthesis, and drills and performance checks are Academy-designed. Before practice, compare the named actions with the installed LIVE build and actual equipment. Bind actions by name rather than copying old default keys. Research is not an in-game validation. Star Citizen Wiki — Cargo https://starcitizen.tools/Cargo SCU, container geometry, grids and ownership. The page also contains obsolete automatic-loading descriptions and future design intentions; these are not instructions for the present cargo interface. Star Citizen Wiki — Mining https://starcitizen.tools/Mining Mass, resistance, instability, fracture, extraction and refinery workflow. Historical prices and proposed Orion specialist systems are excluded from the practical. Star Citizen Wiki — Salvage https://starcitizen.tools/Salvage Component recovery, hull scraping, fracture, disintegration and material processing. Validate the selected vessel’s processing chain and capacity before use. Official LIVE release check: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/patch-notes ———————————————————————————————————————————————— METHOD 1: Show where the figures came from List prices, quantities, travel assumptions and capacity beside their source and date. Mark case figures as assumptions, not market quotes. A reader should be able to replace one changed value and see what happens to the decision. Choose the accounting boundary before collecting figures. Include the stages from accepting the job through recovery, transport and sale or receipt. Separate cash costs from time and unavailable capacity. Training credits are case units; a current in-game quotation needs its own location and observation time rather than being inferred from the teaching example. Practise: Build an input sheet for two jobs. Ready when: Every value has a source and date or is clearly a case assumption. My action and observed result: ____________________________________________________________ Evidence reference: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— METHOD 2: Compare the same work Subtract the included costs from each expected return, then compare time, capacity and recovery needs. Do not compare one job’s gross receipts with another’s net return. State any cost you have left out so it is not mistaken for zero. Compare return per completed job and return over the same period where duration differs. A job leaving 80 credits after included costs over two hours produces 40 per hour; one leaving 70 over one hour produces 70 per hour. Neither figure alone captures an unconfirmed receiver or a recovery exposure the crew cannot accept. Practise: Compare two jobs from dispatch through receipt. Ready when: The comparison uses consistent scope and a calculation another learner can repeat. My action and observed result: ____________________________________________________________ Evidence reference: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— METHOD 3: Set a decision limit Choose the cost, capacity or delay that would make you reconsider. Name who will make that call and when it will be checked. When a figure changes, recalculate before defending the original choice. Test the recommendation against one adverse change at a time, such as lower sale proceeds or an extra transport leg. Identify the point at which the preferred option changes. This is sensitivity analysis: it shows which estimate deserves checking before commitment, rather than disguising an uncertain forecast as an exact profit. Practise: Revise the choice after transport capacity falls. Ready when: You apply the stated limit or explain why it needs a documented change. My action and observed result: ____________________________________________________________ Evidence reference: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— WORKED DECISION Job A returns 100 training credits and costs 20; Job B returns 130 and costs 60. Before other constraints, A leaves 80 and B leaves 70. 1. Calculate 80 remaining for A and 70 for B with the supplied costs. State that these exclude any additional-trip cost. 2. Apply the four-space limit. A fits; B cannot be executed as costed, so do not compare its original return as if nothing changed. 3. Recommend A or request a new B estimate. Record the capacity result and the missing additional-trip figure that would be needed to reopen the choice. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— YOUR EXERCISE Show the comparison and update it after the capacity check. A second learner must be able to reproduce the calculation without asking what you omitted. WHAT CHANGES Checked cargo capacity is lower than the input sheet assumed. My decision and reason: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— YOUR WORKING RECORD Option / return / included costs / source and date ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Capacity / travel assumption / excluded costs ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Net comparison / decision limit / revised recommendation ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— CHECK YOUR REASONING If Job B has the larger sale total, why might the planner choose Job A? My answer before consulting the explanation: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— EVIDENCE TO KEEP An input sheet, reproducible comparison and revised decision. Criterion 1: Every value has a source and date or is clearly a case assumption. Individual evidence / finding / assessor's reason: ____________________________________________________________ Criterion 2: The comparison uses consistent scope and a calculation another learner can repeat. Individual evidence / finding / assessor's reason: ____________________________________________________________ Criterion 3: You apply the stated limit or explain why it needs a documented change. Individual evidence / finding / assessor's reason: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— FINDINGS AND NEXT ATTEMPT Demonstrated: observed work meets the criterion. Further practice required: an observed gap needs a specific practice task. Interrupted: conditions prevented valid assessment; not a failure. Not assessed: enough evidence has not yet been collected. All three criteria need individual evidence. A team result or quiz cannot replace an unobserved practical. Practice variant for a fresh attempt: Keep capacity at six but add a supplied recovery cost to A. Require a fresh calculation and decision limit. My next practice task: ____________________________________________________________ Review contact: ____________________________________________________________ ———————————————————————————————————————————————— COMPARE AFTER ANSWERING With the stated costs, A leaves more after costs. Then check whether time, capacity or risk changes that advantage. A larger sale total is not the same as a better job. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— SOURCE AND EDITION Case IO–4: the incomplete delivery /academy/archives/cargo-case Applied Industry case issued by CDR Tobias Wren in 2956, drawing on the 1968 Neuhaus freight record. The older waybill belongs to the family freight business, not to Lex Astra; the course quantities are new teaching examples. The lessons are current Academy teaching, not newly discovered historical records. Lex Astra opened in 2891. Historical sources keep their original issuer and date; all case callsigns, quantities, times and conditions are supplied for practice. Course text revised 8 October 2026; fictional teaching edition 2956.3. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES Instruction revised 9 October 2026. Lex Astra cases supply the teaching situations. Professional references inform communication, decision-making and instructional design; they do not confer external qualifications. LIVE capabilities remain subject to the recorded session check. Cedefop · observable learning outcomes https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications/4209 FAA · crew resource management (2004 reference) https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_120-51E.pdf RSI · verify release notes before live delivery https://robertsspaceindustries.com/patch-notes ———————————————————————————————————————————————— INSTRUCTOR CHECK Try the exercise with the ship and equipment you will use. Brief station assignments, callsigns, channel and recovery point. Explain the command “Stop exercise” before starting. If a bug prevents completion, repeat the affected task when it works. Ask before recording the session; use player handles in your notes. Review rules: /academy/archives/academy-ordinance Teaching basis: /academy/framework#research