I Need to Produce 500 Candles in Seven Days — How Do I Calculate Whether My Current Melting Equipment, Moulds and Workspace Can Handle the Production Volume?

Turn the order into daily loads

The example is a corporate order of 500 container candles, 200 g each in White Matte Glass Jars, scented with Orchard Pear Fragrance Oil at 8% in Luxury Soy Wax Chunks, due in seven days. The seven days are not seven pour days. Day 1 goes on a test pour from the delivered bulk materials and on preparing jars. Day 7 is kept for top-ups, QC, labelling and packing. That leaves 5 pour days, days 2 to 6. Cure time isn't published for this wax. If the client needs cured candles on day 7, the schedule has to start earlier. Say so before you accept.

Every row is a separate question, and each has its own limit. Melting is limited by the melter's capacity and cycle time. Pouring and finishing are limited by people. Cooling is limited by flat surface area, because a freshly poured candle can't be moved until it has set. If the candles were moulded, the number of moulds would add a fourth limit. The rest of this page works through each one.

Melting capacity

CSI lists three melter capacities. The Mini Electric Wax/Soap Melter holds 1 litre and costs ₹2,360.00 with a one-year warranty. The imported Electric Wax Melter comes in 10 kg (₹21,240.00) and 20 kg (₹25,960.00) capacities. What isn't published is how fast any of them melts, and that is the number that matters. The table uses example cycle times, which are working assumptions to replace with your own timings: from loading solid wax to reaching your pour temperature, plus emptying. A litre of melted wax weighs less than a kilo, so the example assumes 0.85 kg per mini fill. Weigh yours.

On these assumptions, a single mini melter can't do the job. Two minis still need 6.1 days, over the five available. A 10 kg melter handles it in about 2.6 days, which leaves slack for a re-pour. A 20 kg melter halves that again, but it only earns its keep if you have the hands and shelf space to use 60 kg of wax a day. For most small workshops, the 10 kg unit is the step that turns this order from impossible to comfortable. I Want to Scale a Candle Business from 100 to 10,000 Candles a Month — How Should My Wax, Fragrance Oil, Wick, Jar and Packaging Purchasing Quantities Change as Production Grows? looks at equipment as a business scales beyond one-off orders.

Hands and hours

Melting runs mostly unattended. Everything else takes hands. Here is an example breakdown per candle. The minutes are working assumptions, so time your own over ten candles and divide:

That is 33.3 hours, or 4.2 eight-hour days for one person. It fits the week, but not alongside running the melter, taking calls and fixing sinkholes. Two people make it comfortable. Doing the jar preparation for all 500 on day 1 (washing, sticking wicks, fitting centring devices at 5 for ₹118.00) takes the fiddliest task out of the pour days. A Wax Pouring Funnel with 4 nozzles (₹1,888.00) and a pouring jug (₹531.00) can speed up pouring. How much depends on your set-up, so time a tray of 20 before counting on it.

Workspace and cooling

Jar dimensions aren't in our data, so measure yours. The example assumes each jar takes an 8 × 8 cm square of shelf, including a finger-gap for airflow. On that basis, the whole order covers 3.2 m² of flat, level surface. A day's pour of 100 needs 0.64 m² free and undisturbed until the candles set and are topped up. A four-shelf rack of 1.2 × 0.45 m (an example size) gives 2.16 m², so the whole order needs about 2 racks. The day's pour needs about one, if yesterday's candles can be moved on in the morning.

If the order is moulded

For container candles, the jar is the mould. There is one per candle, and it leaves with the candle. For pillars and shaped candles, every candle needs a mould for as long as it takes to set and release, and the number of moulds becomes the limit. Cavity weights aren't published, so the example uses an illustrative 250 g pillar in the Pillar Candle Mould (Tall 11.2 × 6.3 cm or Short 8.6 × 6.5 cm, ₹942.82 each). It assumes one or two demoulds per mould per day, which are working assumptions for your own wax and room.

That is why a 500-pillar order in a week is a mould-buying decision before it is a wax decision. If a client will accept a container candle instead, the constraint disappears. If they won't, the mould count, and whether it is in stock, is the first thing to confirm on WhatsApp. I've Received My First Large Corporate Candle Order — Which Raw Materials Have the Longest Lead Times and Should be Secured First? covers securing items with limited stock first. Other shapes, such as the Ribbed Pillar Mould (5 × 10 cm ₹1,060.82), work the same way.

A seven-day plan that fits

Keep your timings after the order ships: minutes per cycle, kilos per cycle, minutes per candle and candles per rack. Next time, the capacity check takes five minutes and uses no assumptions at all. For pricing a deadline order that needs extra equipment or overtime, see I Need to Give a Bulk Candle Price for 100, 500 and 1,000 Pieces — How Do I Calculate Quantity Discounts Without Accidentally Eliminating My Margin? and My Customer Wants a Lower Price for 1,000 Candles — Which Costs Actually Decrease with Volume and Which Costs Stay Almost the Same?.

Frequently asked questions