Greenhouse, Indoor Farming & Agri-Processing worked example

Distribution Freshness Window with daily ship-out to dcs of 3,000 cases / day: a worked example

What does the result look like when daily ship-out to dcs reaches 3,000 cases / day? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. Use it when planning the FIFO buffer in the finished cooler ahead of a holiday weekend, or when a retailer changes ship cadence and you need to resize the cooler hold.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Daily ship-out to DCs: 3,000 cases / day (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 1,200)
  • Protected days of supply: 3 days (unchanged)
  • Safety stock cases: 600 cases (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Cycle stock buffer = daily ship-out to DCs × protected days of supply) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1.67 days for protected days of supply, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1,000 days for unprotected days.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 3,000 pieces for inventory.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 3 pieces / day for daily usage.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where daily ship-out to dcs sits at 1,200 cases / day and the headline result is 0.67 days, this scenario comes in 150% above the baseline at 1.67 days.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when daily ship-out to dcs is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. It assumes steady daily ship-out; promotions, weather-driven demand, or harvest gluts can make a fixed days-of-supply target either short or wasteful.

Results at a glance

  • Protected days of supply: 1.67 days (headline result)
  • Unprotected days: 1,000 days
  • Inventory: 3,000 pieces
  • Daily usage: 3 pieces / day

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Distribution Freshness Window calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.