01FundamentalsWhat is production capacity planning?
Production capacity planning is working out the maximum number of finished units you can actually make with the materials, time and equipment you have right now. For a small maker it comes down to one honest number per product: how many can I make today before something runs out?
- Start from stock, not hopeCount what is physically on your shelves in the units you buy them in. Guessed numbers produce guessed capacity.
- Work per productEach product has its own recipe, so each product has its own ceiling. A shared ingredient links those ceilings together.
- Find the limiting materialDivide the stock of every material by how much one unit needs. The smallest result is your capacity, and that material is your bottleneck.
- Re-check after every orderCapacity is not a monthly report. It changes the moment you accept an order or receive a delivery.
Takeaway. Capacity planning turns a vague feeling of being busy into a number you can quote to a customer with confidence.
02RecipesHow to calculate a bill of materials (BOM)
A bill of materials is the full list of every input needed to make one unit of a product, with an exact quantity and unit for each line. Build it once per product and every other calculation, capacity, cost and reorder, falls out of it automatically.
- List every inputInclude packaging, labels, wicks, jars, ribbon and boxes. Forgotten packaging is the most common reason a batch stalls.
- Use one unit per materialPick grams, millilitres or pieces and stay consistent. Mixing kilos and grams is where most spreadsheets break.
- Divide by batch sizeIf a batch of 24 uses 8 kg of flour, the BOM line is 333 g per unit. Always store the per-unit figure.
- Add a waste factorSpillage, trimming and rejects are real. A two to five percent allowance keeps your plan honest.
Takeaway. Once the BOM is right, capacity, cost per unit and your shopping list stop being separate jobs.
03MoneyHow to work out cost and margin per unit
Cost per unit is the sum of every BOM line multiplied by what you actually paid for that material, per unit of measure. Margin is your selling price minus that cost, expressed as a percentage of the price.
- Use paid prices, not list pricesRecord the price you paid on the last purchase, including delivery, divided by the quantity received.
- Count packaging as product costThe jar and the label are part of what the customer buys, so they belong in cost per unit.
- Price your own time separatelyAdd a labour rate per unit if you want a true gross margin. Many makers discover their bestseller is their worst earner.
- Re-price when suppliers moveA ten percent flour increase quietly eats a thin margin. Update the material price and every product re-costs itself.
Takeaway. Knowing margin per unit tells you which product to promote and which one to retire or reprice.
04BuyingSetting reorder points so you never run out mid batch
A reorder point is the stock level at which you place a new order, calculated from how fast you use a material and how long your supplier takes to deliver, plus a safety buffer.
- Measure weekly usageTotal the amount consumed by the orders you actually fulfilled over four weeks and divide by four.
- Know your lead timeAsk each supplier how many days from order to doorstep, then use the slowest realistic figure.
- Reorder point formulaWeekly usage divided by seven, multiplied by lead time in days, plus a safety buffer of roughly one week of usage.
- Group by supplierPlacing one combined order per supplier cuts delivery fees and reduces the number of things you have to remember.
Takeaway. A reorder point converts panic buying into a calm weekly shopping list.
05OrdersHow to decide whether you can accept an order
Compare the order against your remaining capacity after everything you already committed to. If the shortfall is zero you can say yes, and if it is not, you know exactly what to buy and by when.
- Commit stock, do not just note itAn accepted order should reserve its materials immediately, otherwise you sell the same flour twice.
- Check the shortfall, not the totalYou rarely need everything. You need the two or three lines that come up short.
- Work backwards from the due dateShortfall plus supplier lead time tells you the last safe day to order.
- Say no early, not lateDeclining on day one keeps a customer. Declining the day before pickup loses one.
Takeaway. Every yes should be backed by materials that are already accounted for.
06ToolsWhy spreadsheets stop working as you grow
Spreadsheets are excellent for a single snapshot and poor at staying true over time. Each new product multiplies the formulas, and every manual stock edit is a chance to drift away from reality.
- Shared materials get messyOne ingredient across eight products means eight formulas to update when the price changes.
- No commitment trackingA sheet does not know which of your stock is already promised to an accepted order.
- Version driftThe copy on your laptop and the copy on your phone slowly disagree, and both feel authoritative.
- No alertsA spreadsheet will never tell you that you are three days from running out of wax.
Takeaway. The moment you have more than a handful of recipes, you need a system that recalculates itself.
Stop doing this by hand.
Makeable runs every one of these calculations for you the moment you enter a material or accept an order. Start free, no card needed.
