Configuring Core Data Entity to Store NSArrays / NSSets, etc

Configuring Core Data Entity to Store NSArrays / NSSets, etc

I want to store a number of objects into Core Data which contain
collections in addition to other scalar variables.
For example, I may want to persist several thousand "Machine" objects:
@interface Machine : NSObject <NSCopying>
{
NSString *idNumber;
BOOL existsInLibrary;
NSSet *sections; // Contains a set of NSStrings
NSSet *banks; // " "
NSSet *positions; // " "
NSMutableArray *orientationIDs; // Contains an array of NSNumbers
NSSet *credits; // Contains a set of NSNumbers
}
There are numerous similar SO questions, but there does not seem to be a
singularly definitive consensus on how to accomplish this. Do I want to
serialize the collections into Binary Data attributes? Or should I utilize
the "transformable" type? Or do I want to make several one-to-many
relationships?
From what I've read, the latter of these solutions is the most appealing
to me, although I am not sure if it makes the most sense in my situation,
where the collections merely contain NSNumbers/NSStrings as opposed to
other custom objects (which nearly every solution using this method seems
to take for granted).
If you could enlighten me by explaining when each of the above tactics is
situationally the most effective as well as with which you think I should
apply to my own scenario, I would be very grateful!
Furthermore, should the answer be "use a one-to-many relationship" - does
this mean that I need to make a distinct entity for each and every
collection-type variable? Ultimately this would result in several dozen
entities with one-to-many relationships if I were to apply this to all of
the objects that I need to persist; is that to be expected, or am I
thinking about this the wrong way?
Thanks!