Greenhouse, Indoor Farming & Agri-Processing worked example

Distribution Freshness Window with daily ship-out to dcs of 600 cases / day: a worked example

Suppose daily ship-out to dcs falls to 600 cases / day. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Estimate the cooler buffer (in cases) needed to protect a daily DC ship-out plus a transit and shelf-life safety stock for fresh leafy greens, herbs, or berries so post-harvest can avoid both stockouts and aged product.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Daily ship-out to DCs: 600 cases / day (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 1,200)
  • Protected days of supply: 3 days (held at the documented default)
  • Safety stock cases: 600 cases (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Cycle stock buffer = daily ship-out to DCs × protected days of supply.
  • Protected days of supply works out to 0.33 days at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Unprotected days works out to 200 days at these inputs.
  • Inventory works out to 600 pieces at these inputs.
  • Daily usage works out to 3 pieces / day at these inputs.

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 50% below the baseline at 0.33 days.
  • It computes the cycle-stock buffer as daily ship-out times protected days, then adds safety stock to give required finished-cooler inventory. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Protected days of supply: 0.33 days (headline result)
  • Unprotected days: 200 days
  • Inventory: 600 pieces
  • Daily usage: 3 pieces / day

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Distribution Freshness Window calculator, set daily ship-out to dcs to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.