[Droplede]

Those two things -- population and space yard -- are pretty much what you can do during the game. You can set a space yard to emergency production (which doubles its output rate for up to 10 turns), but then your build rate slows down to 25% production for as long as you were in emergency. That really hurts, and for that reason, I almost never use emergency production unless it's a life-or-death situation.

When you're creating your race at the very beginning of the game, you can do some things, too. You can increase your construction aptitude percentage in your racial characteristics, and that will raise your maximum space yard output accordingly. There's also an advanced ability -- hardy industrialist -- that you can choose for 1,000 race points. It boosts your yard production by 25%, and it should be cumulative with whatever points you put into construction aptitude, too.

Hope that helps.