A quotation for cleanroom wipes usually arrives as a unit price at a stated MOQ. Neither number tells you what the material costs to hold. The gap between the factory price and the cost in your building is where most of the avoidable spend sits.
The carton is the real unit
Buyers compare price per sheet; warehouses handle cartons. If a carton holds 12 packs of 100 sheets, the smallest unit you can receive is 1,200 sheets, and the smallest unit you can issue may be a pack of 100. The ratio between those two numbers decides how much space the material occupies and how often someone opens a carton to take out one pack.
Ask for the carton dimensions, the weight and the pallet pattern in the quotation. A carton that is 10 cm taller than necessary can cost a whole layer on a pallet, and a pallet that does not cube out means you are paying to ship air.
The MOQ arithmetic
A low MOQ looks flexible and often is not. If the MOQ is 20 cartons and the monthly draw is three, you have bought seven months of stock. The price per carton may be better than the alternative, but the cash, the shelf and the risk of an obsolete pack all sit in your building.
Work backwards from the draw: monthly consumption, divided by carton quantity, rounded up to the nearest whole carton, then multiplied by the lead time in months plus a safety margin. That is the order quantity. If the MOQ is above it, the question is not how to justify the stock but whether a different pack size exists.
A worked example
Assume a site uses 4,000 sheets a month of a 300-sheet box, packed 8 boxes to a carton. Monthly draw is 1.7 cartons, so two cartons cover a month with a little spare. With a 10-week lead time and a four-week safety margin, the order quantity is about 3.2 cartons, rounded to four.
If the supplier's MOQ is 24 cartons, the site is being asked to hold six months of stock to get the price. At a 12% cost of capital and a warehouse cost per pallet, the carrying cost can easily exceed the discount. The calculation is not exotic; it is just rarely done before the PO is raised.
| Item | Value | Effect on order |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly draw | 4,000 sheets | 1.7 cartons |
| Lead time | 10 weeks | +2.3 cartons in transit |
| Safety stock | 4 weeks | +0.9 carton |
| Order quantity | ~4 cartons | 44% above monthly draw |
Space is a specification item
Clean storage is not free. A carton that has to sit in a controlled store costs more per month than one that sits in a general warehouse, and a pack that has to be repacked for issue costs labour. If the supplier can deliver a smaller inner pack with the same outer carton, the storage and issue cost can fall without changing the cloth.
Ask for the pack configuration as a variable, not a given. Suppliers convert to several inner counts for different markets, and the one you are offered is often the one on the shelf rather than the one that fits your store.
Is a higher MOQ always cheaper per unit?
Almost always at the factory, rarely at the P&L. Add freight, storage, insurance and the cost of capital before deciding. The discount has to beat all four.
How much safety stock is reasonable?
Enough to cover the variability of the lead time, not the worst lead time ever recorded. Four weeks is a common starting point for a stable sea-freight lane; longer if the route is unreliable.
Can we mix references in one container?
Yes, and it is usually the right move. A mixed container gets the freight benefit without forcing six months of one reference. It does require the supplier to plan the pallet build, so ask before the order is confirmed.
