Automation

Industries that produce materials will always deposit into any available adjacent yard.

Yards can be built adjacent to each other to effectively expand them as a single larger yard.

Industries will grab materials from within their catchment area (regardless of whether those materials are in yards or not) - the more materials in the catchment area, the faster the industry will operate.

Input catchment area and output direction can be seen by hovering over a production tile.
   The catchment area will usually flash a couple of tiles in each direction around the industry.
   The output direction will show as arrows over any yards adjacent to the industry.

Materials output into yards will always be shunted to the furthest accessible slot from the providing industry.

Pickers can be used to effectively sort items in production chains automatically.