I Need to Produce 5,000 Corporate Candles in Two Weeks — How Do I Work Backwards From Dispatch Date to Raw-Material Procurement and Daily Production Targets?

Start from the dispatch date, not from the melter

Most makers plan a big order forwards: buy materials, start pouring, and hope the last box is taped in time. With 5,000 corporate candles and two weeks, forward planning fails quietly. You discover on day eight that the pour rate was fine but the packing table could not keep up, or that the last 80 kg of fragrance never arrived.

Backward planning reverses the question. You ask what must be true on the day before dispatch, then the day before that, until you reach today. The result is a list of dated targets, and each one can be checked at the end of every shift.

For this page we use a working example: 5,000 candles of 200 g each, 8% fragrance load, two calendar weeks, six working days a week. That gives twelve working days, with dispatch at the end of day 12. Replace any of these with your own figures; the method does not change.

Turn 5,000 candles into kilograms first

Fragrance load is a percentage of the total candle weight, not of the wax. So the order converts like this: 5,000 × 200 g = 1,000 kg of scented wax. At 8%, that is 1,000 × 0.92 = 920 kg of wax and 1,000 × 0.08 = 80 kg of fragrance oil.

Now add planning wastage. At 5%, you plan for 1,050 kg of scented wax: 966 kg of wax and 84 kg of oil. At 200 g a pour, 1,050 kg covers 5,250 pours, which leaves room for spillage, residue left in the melter and pitchers, and the candles you will reject at QC.

Jars and wicks follow pour count, not kilograms, so plan them at 5,250 as well. If you expect breakage in handling, add a spare quantity you have measured from past orders rather than a guess.

Build the calendar backwards, one stage at a time

Each stage is placed by the stage after it. The only number here you must supply yourself is the set-and-hold time: how long your approved candle needs before it can be lidded, labelled and boxed without marking the surface. This example uses two days as a placeholder. Validate your own figure on your own jar before you commit to a date.

What 750 pours a day means on the floor

750 pours × 200 g is 150 kg of scented wax per pour day: 138 kg of wax and 12 kg of oil. That figure is the one to test your equipment against.

The Electric Wax Melter (Imported) is listed in a 10 kg capacity and a 20 kg capacity. On 10 kg fills, 150 kg is fifteen melts a day; on 20 kg fills it is seven or eight. The product page states the 10 kg unit melts 10 kg of soy wax in approximately 30 minutes at 100°C, so fifteen melts on one 10 kg unit is about seven and a half hours of melting alone, before any cooling to scenting temperature or pouring. One 10 kg melter cannot carry this order by itself.

Pouring has its own arithmetic. A 600 ml steel pitcher holds roughly 540 g of melted wax, which is two full 200 g candles per trip with a remainder. Seven hundred and fifty pours is therefore close to 375 pitcher trips a day. If one person pours, that is the bottleneck; if three pour, it is not. Time one real pitcher cycle and multiply.

Fragrance safety applies at scale exactly as at the bench. The melter's temperature display runs to 100°C with a stated ±10°C deviation, and some published flashpoints sit below that: Roasted Coconut at 93°C and Gardenia at 98°C. Add oil at the wax maker's stated temperature, check that oil's flashpoint, and read the wax with a separate thermometer, not the dial.

Procurement: the order date sits before day one

For wax, 966 kg is roughly 97 packs of 10 kg. No 25 kg or 100 kg pack is listed on any CSI wax, so quantities like this are quoted on WhatsApp (+91 7397976926). For reference, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 is ₹5,074.00 for 10 kg and is the same price per kg at every pack size. When you request the quote, ask two things: the lead time, and whether the quantity can come from one manufacturing lot.

For fragrance, 84 kg is split by the order's scent list. Sandalwood, for example, is ₹5,026.80 per kg with a stated flashpoint of 203°C. Ask for the IFRA and MSDS documents on WhatsApp at the same time so compliance paperwork is not holding up dispatch.

For wicks, Cotton Braided Wicks Ready Made are ₹12.00 each, or ₹12,000.00 per 1,000. Six packs of 1,000 cover 5,250 pours with some spare. Pre-assembled wicks remove a whole preparation step from days 1 and 2.

When the backward plan says no

Sometimes the calendar does not close. Procurement lead time plus two check days plus seven pour days plus the hold plus packing is longer than two weeks. That is useful information, and it arrives before you have accepted the order rather than on day ten.

You then have three honest options: split dispatch into two consignments, add pour capacity for a limited number of days, or move the date. Buying equipment is only one of those, and it is the slowest to pay back. Tell the client on day zero, not day eleven.

Where this page fits

CSI already has guides that cover parts of this question. This page takes the production-floor angle; these go deeper on the rest:

Three things to buy for this job

Frequently asked questions