Help a N00b with Space Bases

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Loser:
When I first started playing I shunned the Ship Yard component because it was so much slower than the Facility. But once you have five or six of those babies going at once you see their value. Then you get twenty-three of them going, cracking out hollow, basic hulls and retroseries those into a war fleet with your seventeen Repair Bases.

What exactly is the advantage to this, as opposed to building completed ships??

Asmodean