Heh, thanks for the reply. I figured it out, and I felt really stupid afterward. I guess I'd been staring at the screen too long.

I just put one purchasing unit in the upper left corner, another in the upper right corner, and a third in the middle square of the right column. That way the three purchasing units can all connect to both of the upper two squares in the middle column. Not sure why I couldn't see it right away. It's simple.

Actually, there is a way to create a factory with 3 manufacturing units for a 3 input item.

P1 M1 S1
P2 M2 P3
P1 M3 S2

M1 gets stuff from upper left corner p1, p2 and p3, sells out S1
M2 gets stuff from all purchasing units, sells out S1 and S2
M3 gets stuff from lower left corner p1, p2 and p3, sells out S2

You can even alter this to produce 2 different things: one in M1 and M2, the other in M3 ... but then M2 only sells out S1.

The interesting question is when is this sort of set up desirable ... and economically efficient. :-)

(Sorry about the thread necromancy, but wanted to share.)

Necro away, as far as I'm concerned!

I like to have an inventory unit in my factories to flatten out potential shortages and surpluses, but otherwise your plan ought to work.

Not sure if anyone will read this but anyway.
Is this any point investing in stocks as your person over your company? I think you can become chairman, but does this give much more advantages than CEO?

This is not as important on easier difficulties, but the reason you buy up your own company is so that hostile takeovers don't happen to you.

So, only use your character to invest in your own company and is it totally pointless to invest in others? Is there any point in making your character richer?

To answer your first question: no, it isn't pointless as you too can takeover other companies if you own enough of their stock. As for making your character richer...that would be the whole point of capitalism. ^^

The advantage is you can buy more of your company stock, so issue new shares without risk of hostile takeover.

Your character doesn't gain any special powers over your company just because he owns stock in it. Still, it's well worth the investment for the reasons others have stated.

I usually use all my character's money to buy stock in my company right at the start of the game. Whenever I can I use the company's money to buy back stock, thus increasing my character's (and my company's) ownership percentage. It's important to prevent other companies and other investors from gaining a controlling share in your company.

If you've got a profitable company and your controlling position is secure, you can start gobbling up other companies.

Thanks for all your help :)
(I'm not sure how to multi-quote or even if you can on GOG.com)