Red Deer Polyfacturing

Red Deer Poly is located in the Quebecoise Dominion of Eastern Canada, and is one of many Canadian mecha manufacturers. The large number of small builders has given the Quebecoise an advantage inside of the Atlantic Federation, their machines are fewer in number, but are much higher in quality and much harder to exploit. With so many designs, it is a challenge for opponents to keep up with what weaknesses the machines might have, and with production runs so low, a weakness might vanish in less than a dozen machines built.

Purpose:

Red Deer Polyfacturing is a military industrial company that does small production runs on mecha and other high end vehicles. It doesn't produce large numbers of machines, as it is a 'boutique' manufacturer, and is not set up for large scale production.

Agenda:

Red Deer Poly is a strong supporter of Canadian militarism and support of the Atlantic Federation. Like the other Quebecois poly-facs, Red Deer is a Francophone company, with strong ties to Canadian Nationalism, and is willing to work with other Poly-facs and suppliers to form an industrial network to attempt to rival the behemoths of OmniConsumer and Union Aerospace for preeminence in North American military development and deployment.

Facilities:

Red Deer Poly has single facility in the Quebec Megaplex. This facility takes up six decks of the #2 Tower, and is located near ground level.

Administration - Level 8. admin offices and local data systems run the company and it's small staff

Research and Design - Level 7, and 8. Most of RDP's products are sub-contracted or licensed, so most of their R&D is exploited patents and licenses they hold to mesh together machines from these parts. The rest of the work is aesthetic design, layout, and the appearance of the machines they built. They are builders, not innovators.

Production - Levels 2-8. Production is composed of six industrial polyforges that are capable of producing military grade equipment. The chassis, armor shell, structural components, and other sundry parts of the mecha they produce are polyforged on site and assembled in a number of mecha bays. Highly sophisticated components are imported from other manufacturers and are installed in the mech chassis as it is completed. Power plants, weapons, and electronics are typically imported, but low tech weapons like missile launchers, autocannons, and low energy weapons like lasers can be made on site. The facility can produce around 2,500 tons of mech per year, equating out to 45 Federation Wolverines, or 125 Stingers, or 29 Battlemasters.

Warehousing - levels 1-6. Sub-components and completed vehicles can be stored in levels 1-6. The use of levels is uneven, many of the mech bays and polyforges extend through multiple decks, and have large amounts of open space available to them. The warehousing sector is not used for long term storage. Completed mecha are moved outside of the Arco to the Red Deer Mechadrome.

Red Deer Mechadrome - external. The Red Deer Mechadrome is 12 outdoors gantries and revetments that house mecha that are in final inspection and testing trials. The facility also has a large bunker where completed machines can be stored, as well as a weapons testing facility (all weapons installed are pre-tested for accuracy and function)

Production Process

Red Deer doesn't design many mecha. It is a sub-contractor for other companies that all they do is design mecha, or they will function as a middleman and will use their network of contacts to put the right people in contact with each other to get the machines they want. Thus, there are no Red Deer mecha, ironically.

Factories as they were recognized in the Petroleum Era, are few and far between. The polyforge replaced large sundry factories, and the scrapping of planned obsolescence undermined the traditional factory model. A factory and supply chain for producing one thing was simply doomed, as there are few things with a high enough demand to keep a factory running near capacity. And a factory that isn't running near capacity is massive wasted potential. At any given time, Red Deer Poly has enough work slated to keep a 85% Operational rating. Most smaller operations dont push for more than this, as the employees and operators need time to retool and reprogram between production runs, and there is a certain amount of time factored in for holidays, mechanical and supply failures, and to simply avoid overbooking the facility.

Phase 1: Design

The factory has the initial design delivered to the R&D department. It is evaluated, cross-evaluated by Admin, and then the decisions are made about financing, production timeframes, and other elements of business. If accepted, the production run goes to Phase 2

Phase 2: Prototyping

In phase 2, 2-5 units are produced for testing and evaluation. This is only done for the first time a design is produced. Phase 2 is often skipped when the factory is running a licensed mech, or a mech it has run before, or if the design is more than 70% similar to a previous run.

Phase 3: 1st Batch

It isn't uncommon for larger runs to be broken up into production batches. This allow for the polyforges to set and make the same pieces several times in a row, rather than to either try to built a mech one part at a time, or to build all of the sub-components in a massive stockpile for a mass assembly. Large factories can do either, but Red Deer generally only runs enough parts to have a dozen machines in assembly at a time. After that X number of parts is made, the polyforges are reset to make that same number and sequence of parts while the mecha are being assembled. Thus, the printers will run out foot actuators for a dozen mecha, then leg actuators and frame components, and so forth, until it reaches the head modules for a dozen. Assembly is close behind, so while the 12 built are completed and moved out, the printers have been able to keep running into the next batch. Mecha runs less than a dozen are common.

Phase 3+ Production Runs

The facility will run Phase 3.1 through however many flights of 12 are required to make the order.

Phase 4: Assembly

Typically running slightly behind parts production, Assembly sees those parts...assembled. This is more than just stacking parts together and fitting joints. Internal components like the power plant, weapons, electronics and other widgets and gadgets are installed in phase 4.

Phase 5: Testing

In phase 5, the completed mecha are walked out of the assembly area and go into a check area, and then into the mechadrome for mechanical tests and final fitting. They are also painted at the mechadrome.

Who Uses Red Deer Poly?

Red Deer and the other small scale Polyfacturers have a diverse client base.

Mercenaries - most federal governments aren't keen on selling their war gear to mercenaries. This might seem contrary, but in the Cosmic Era, the military industry and financial systems aren't as dominant as they were in the Petroleum Era, and the financial system has shifted to the point that the money isn't in selling as much hardware as possible so much as it is about securing government contracts. One of the things that goes with government contracts is exclusivity, once you start working for the Atlantic Federation Armed Forces, you ONLY work for them.

Security Contractors - Main battlemechs and assault mecha aren't really useful, and the security industry can't support a branch of the mech industry to supply them with their specialized machines.

Law Enforcement Agencies - the cops need cop mechs, and the military industry isn't interested in making Cop-Mechs.

Mega and Hyper-Corps - like with the above mentioned, the Corps have their own defensive forces, and like to have their own gear, rather than easily hacked military left-overs and second line machines.

Eccentric Obscenely Wealthy - Build me a Bat-mech, right now Alfred.

Seibertronians - can contract to have a Polyfacturer make them a new body and insert their cortex into it.

Non-Federal Level Nations - the major nations within the New Earth Governments can have their own mech resources, some nations are wealthy and powerful enough to have their own shipyards. Others are not so wealthy, and have to outsource their domestic garrison forces, or rely on mercenaries. New Themyscira's mecha frequently come from polyfacturers like Red Deer.

Entertainment Industry - the media needs mecha for it's mecha drama, and those need to be accessible for filming, internal shooting, and are completely unsuited for combat.