Start small
Hand crafting and a fuel-burning furnace come first. Grow into ore processing, powered furnaces, extraction, crafting and storage networks. Some machines have useful blank-code defaults; scripts let you control the details as your factory grows.
Give every item a destination
Item pipes move materials between real inventories. Wooden pipes extract, and other pipe types route, speed up or sort the flow. A blocked route retains its items. A Void Pipe deliberately destroys accepted items, so use one only where you want disposal.
Match voltage and cable
LV, MV, HV and EV equipment belong to different power tiers. Transformers connect tiers safely. In normal survival rules, feeding the wrong voltage into equipment can damage it. Supply and demand matter: machines need energy to do work, and storage has a finite capacity.
Move fluids with equipment
World liquids are stationary voxel volumes. Buckets, pumps, tanks and fluid pipes move their contents; a placed liquid does not spread across the landscape. Keep water, oil, fuel and steam routes deliberate, and use the in-game machine help for the right ports.
Control when work happens
Automation panels can run a machine always, while a signal is high, or while it is low. Fixed factories also have per-face item roles. A disabled machine holds its work rather than discarding materials. Check power, supply, output space and enable settings before changing working code.