Bakery, Snack & Confectionery Manufacturing worked example

Cooling Tunnel Capacity at 65% cooling tunnel uptime: a worked example

This worked example runs the cooling tunnel capacity numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 65% cooling tunnel uptime instead of the typical 90%. Estimate good product output from cooling tunnel loading, available cycles, tunnel uptime, and cooling pass yield.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Units loaded per cooling cycle: 1,200 pieces/cycle (held at the documented default)
  • Available cooling cycles in the period: 14 cycles (held at the documented default)
  • Cooling tunnel uptime: 65 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 90)
  • First-pass cooling yield: 98 % (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Gross cooling tunnel capacity = units loaded per cycle × available cooling cycles.
  • Good cooled output capacity works out to 10,702 pieces at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Gross cooling tunnel capacity works out to 16,800 pieces at these inputs.
  • Units lost to cooling downtime works out to 5,880 pieces at these inputs.
  • Units lost to cooling defects works out to 218 pieces at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where cooling tunnel uptime sits at 90% and the headline result is 14,818 pieces, this scenario comes in 27.78% below the baseline at 10,702 pieces.
  • Use it during line balancing, capacity planning for a new SKU, or when a cooler is suspected of throttling an oven or enrober. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Good cooled output capacity: 10,702 pieces (headline result)
  • Gross cooling tunnel capacity: 16,800 pieces
  • Units lost to cooling downtime: 5,880 pieces
  • Units lost to cooling defects: 218 pieces

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Cooling Tunnel Capacity calculator, set cooling tunnel uptime to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.