Bricks are grouped and set onto kiln cars in courses having rows with a prescribed number of bricks therein, said prescribed number being determined by the number of bricks per row in the final package to be formed. The bricks are then processed through a kiln, unloaded a course at a time from the kiln car, and stacked for packaging while maintaining during the entire operation the same prescribed number of bricks in each row, so that the row size of the courses set on the kiln car remains constant throughout the operation.