The plant will operate 24/7, but the Receiving Facility will be open 24 hours per day for 6 days. At 6:00 Sunday morning, there will be enough feedstock accumulated in at-plant storage for the maximum 3-day buffer (72 hours). Hauling operations begin again at 6:00 Monday morning. At-plant inventory is decreased to a 2-day buffer (48 hours) to supply the material for operation from 0600 Sunday morning to 6:00 Monday morning.

To discuss the 24-h-hauling concept, it is convenient to consider SSL operations as: 1) "day — haul" operation, and 2) "night-haul" operations. For the day-haul operation, the racks are transported as they are filled during the day. For the night-haul operation, the required number of empty racks, enough for one day’s operation, are pre-positioned at the SSL. Cost of pre-positioning the racks is not considered in this example. The SSL crew fills these racks with bales during their 10-h workday and they are hauled during the night. Each truck arriving during the night unhooks a trailer with two empty racks and hooks up a trailer with two full racks. The next morning, the SSL crew will fill the empty racks delivered during the night and fill them during their workday.