I Want to Launch Mini 50 g, Standard 200 g and Large 500 g Candles — How Do I Create One Combined Raw-Material Procurement Plan?

One plan, three drivers

The mistake with a three-size launch is to write three BOMs — one per size — and add them up line by line, rounding each to packs on the way. That buys three part-used bags of the same wax and fifteen part-used bottles of five oils. The better structure starts from the question "what decides how much of this material I need?" For each material there is exactly one answer, and that answer tells you where to add and where to round.

With that structure, the three sizes stop being three problems. The wax line does not care whether a gram ends up in a 50 g or a 500 g candle. The oil line cares only about the scent. The jar and wick lines care only about the size. The 15-SKU post takes the same plan and stress-tests it for overbuying when the fifteen combinations sell unevenly; this page builds the plan itself.

The per-unit BOM for each size

All three sizes use the same wax and the same 8% working load, so the per-unit split is the same arithmetic three times: oil = weight × 8%, wax = the rest. The fill weights come from two places. The mini is CSI's Heart Cutout Velvet Jar, listed at 50 g wax capacity — one of only two published fills in the catalogue; this page treats 50 g as the finished candle and you should confirm with a weighed pour. The 200 g and 500 g weights are the reader's jars. For 200 g, CSI's White Matte Glass Jar is a practical candidate, but its fill is not published — weigh a test pour. The 500 g jar is the reader's own and appears as a non-CSI line.

Natural Soy Pearl Wax publishes no fragrance ceiling, so 8% is a working figure inside a 6–10% test range. If your range needs more, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 is published at up to 10% and Luxury Soy Wax Chunks at up to 13%. The choice of Soy Pearl here is about the plan, not about performance: it is the one CSI soy wax with a real bulk step (₹450.00 a kilo at 1 kg, ₹424.80 from 5 kg), and a three-size range is exactly the kind of order that reaches it.

The allowance stack, per size

Tests are counted per size because each size needs its own wick decision: three mini tests on one candidate, two candidates × two candles in the standard, and the same in the large — eleven test candles, all poured in Jasmine so the only variable is the wick. Rejects (3%) and pour loss (5%) are labelled working assumptions; breakage (2%) applies to jars only; spare wicks are three per size.

Look at where the weight sits. The minis are 100 of the 180 candles — more than half by count — but only 19% of the finished weight. The 20 large candles are 37%. That is why a size range's wax order is driven by its biggest size, and its jar and wick order by its smallest: count and weight pull in different directions. Plan both.

Rounding: wax once, oil per scent, jars and wicks per size

The wax total is 29,738.4 g. Natural Soy Pearl Wax is listed at 1 kg (₹450.00), 5 kg (₹2,124.00), 10 kg (₹4,248.00) and 50 kg (₹21,240.00, listed in limited stock — confirm on WhatsApp before planning around it). The cheapest cover is 3 × 10 kg for ₹12,744.00, leaving 261.6 g. For comparison, the same total in Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 is 3 × 10 kg for ₹15,222.00: ₹2,478.00 more, with a published 10% ceiling in exchange.

Per scent, the oil need is small — about 468 g for each of the four non-test scents — which is exactly where rounding discipline pays. Several of these oils have a real step at 500 g or 1 kg (Jasmine 1 kg ₹3.92 a gram against ₹4.30 at 100 g; Citrus Lemon ₹2.83 against ₹3.00), but at this volume none of the five reaches a 1 kg bottle. The rule never changes: compute the cheapest in-stock combination for the scent's total, not for each size.

The velvet jar is listed only up to a 10-pack (₹450.00, ₹45.00 each), so 109 jars are 15 packs; ask on WhatsApp if you need larger quantities. The White Matte jar comes in 5s and 10s at ₹70.80 each either way. The wick prices assume the first candidate passes in each size; if the standard size needs Eco Thick C2 instead, its 69 wicks cost ₹660.80 rather than ₹413.00.

The combined procurement plan, priced

Buying the mini and standard Thin C1 wicks as one pack line rather than two is the same driver logic one level down: the wick type, not the size, is what you buy. The White Matte and velvet jars stay separate lines because they are different products. Material cost per unit at production rates (Soy Pearl at ₹424.80 a kilo, Jasmine at its 500 g rate, first-candidate wick, CSI jar where used): mini ₹86.13, standard ₹217.62, large ₹361.73 before its jar. These exclude labour, packaging, freight and GST.

Buy now, buy after the wick tests

The test stage buys a few jars of each CSI size, the candidate wicks in their smallest in-stock packs, enough Soy Pearl for eleven test candles, and Jasmine for those eleven. The production stage buys the rest. Wax and the other four oils could be bought earlier, because no wick result changes them — but a failed large-size test might change the launch itself, so most makers hold everything until the test candles have burned.

That is 9% of the CSI order, spent before the other 91% is committed. Most of the test wicks and jars are not wasted: the spare Thin C1 wicks and the jars carry into production if those candidates pass. How many sample wick sizes to add covers the wick question for a single size in more depth.

Related questions in this cluster

For the fifteen-SKU version of this plan and how not to overbuy when the SKUs sell unevenly, see three sizes in five fragrances. For keeping the collection's materials to a minimum, shared wax and jars, separate oils and standardising ten SKUs. For products outside jars, bubble candles and candles plus melts. And the product-idea-to-BOM template is the starting sheet for any new size you add later.

Frequently asked questions