Propose fresh orders inside the shelf-life assumptions your food-safety function owns, price waste and lost availability on every one, and hold the order for the manager who releases it.
Integration availability depends on the client's existing systems and API access.
Agent controls
Six layers between the model and the order
The layers sit one inside the next. What none of them catches is in the map below.
L6 · Outermost — last line of defenceInward → L1 · closest to the model
L6Rollback / safe modeFall back to standing order levels when evaluation or production signals degrade.Roll back
L5Version monitoringTrack model, prompt, assumption-set and market-rule changes.Track
L4Order trailRecord the demand, the assumptions, both costs and the release.Record
L3Manager releaseHold orders for a named manager; release governs the order, not whether the product is sound.Gate
L2Shelf-life guardrailTest every proposal against the customer's own specification and the market's date rules; a proposal that would move either is returned.Restrict
L1Confidence thresholdsRoute low-confidence proposals back to the standing order level first.Require review
Model coreOrder proposed — quantity, waste cost, stock-out cost and confidence
L1 – L2Test whether an order may stand
L3Puts the release in a manager's hands
L4 – L5Keep the order and the assumptions behind it
L6Falls back to standing order levels when signals degrade
How Nestack evaluates it
Evaluate the ordering workflow — not only the waste at the end of it.
Coverage runs the whole depth of the workflow, and every layer is cut by slice.
Surface — the order the store receives
Depth of coverage ▼
E1Final-output evaluationDid the order carry both costs over the same period?
E2Step-level evaluationDid the agent use the right demand, spec and delivery schedule?
E3Tool evaluationDid it read and write the correct line and the correct store?
E4Confidence calibrationDo low-confidence proposals actually attract more adjustments?
E5Slice evaluationHow does performance change across specific fresh categories?
E6Business outcomeHow many orders needed an adjustment, or left a gap on the shelf?
Floor — the shelf the store answers for
Failure modes
Where each failure originates in the agent
Seven ways a fresh order goes wrong, placed by stage.
Agent lifecycleDirection of processing →
01 · Retrieval1 mode
BO-03
Stale stock position
A superseded stock count is read as though it were current.
Stage gathersDemand, stock, shelf-life assumptions and delivery days
02 · Reasoning2 modes
BO-04
Waste optimised alone
Order sizes fall and the stock-out cost is never priced.
BO-06
Shelf life stretched
A proposal leans on a longer life than the specification sets.
Stage proposesQuantity, waste cost, stock-out cost and confidence
03 · Tool / write2 modes
BO-02
Ordered before release
A proposal reaches the supplier before a manager released it.
BO-05
Duplicate order
One line is ordered twice across two delivery days.
Stage writesOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
04 · Output1 mode
BO-01
Gap left on the shelf
The order is short and the line is unavailable for sale.
Stage returnsThe order the manager releases to the supplier
05 · Change / Version1 mode
BO-07
Silent assumption drift
A model or parameter change widens what the agent will order.
Stage tracksModel, prompt, assumption sets and market rules
Sev-1 · an order placed before releaseSev-2 · a shelf-life assumption movedSev-3 · demand degrades, order routes to review
Short-shelf-life produce is where the trade-off bites hardest, and it is the slice a single site-wide number buries. Nestack reports the manager-adjustment rate by fresh category, not only in total.
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Short-shelf-life produce
9.1%
3.7×
Review
Promotional fresh lines
6.9%
2.8×
Review
Newly ranged fresh items
3.7%
1.5×
Watch
Established staple lines
1.5%
0.6×
Normal
Bar: manager-adjustment-rate lift vs. staple-line baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
A cycle closes on a case, not a meeting
The cycle ends in a regression case, not in a meeting about what happened. That suite is what the next order placed on fresh is measured against.
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Adjustment rate rises in a fresh category.
02Diagnose
Pull the orders, the two costs printed on them and the assumptions they leaned on, and keep narrowing until one cause is left standing.
03Improve
Every change is versioned against the orders that exposed it.
04Verify
A failing case holds the release back.
05Learn
The case joins the suite for good, and the ordering rules are revisited.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. The next order meets a suite one case longer.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, ordering workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Fresh ordering workflow discovery and boundary definition.
02Replenishment, POS and ERP assessment.
03Shelf-life ownership and market date-rule mapping.
04Demand and stock ingestion.
05Ordering logic and cost binding.
06Confidence scoring and hold routing.
07Manager release workflow.
08Replenishment-system integration.
09Shelf-life and stock-out cases.
10Guardrails and ordering controls.
11Order-trail instrumentation.
12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne category, one storeProductionProduction replenishmentAdvancedMultiple stores / banners
Introduced at Pilot
Ordering to your demand and your spec✓✓✓
Manager release✓✓✓
Order-quality baseline✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Reporting by fresh category—✓✓
Release workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back—✓✓
Replenishment-system integration—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Multi-market date rules——✓
Multi-stage fresh approvals——✓
High store counts——✓
Multi-store ordering controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, store and line counts, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from buildBuild pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bringWe build with it
01Your line list and delivery schedule→Demand and stock ingestion and line mappingWeek 1
02Representative waste and gap history→Ordering baseline, cost extraction and spec bindingWeek 2
03Your specifications and who owns shelf life→Shelf-life ownership and market date-rule mappingWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→Replenishment, POS and ERP assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Orders you would not want delivered→Shelf-life cases and the evaluation suiteWeek 4
06What no order may quietly change→Confidence scoring, hold routing, guardrails and ordering controlsWeek 3
07Named managers to release fresh orders→Manager release workflow, then pilot and production validationWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
The bands follow the real work, which is why evaluation and pilot share the fifth week.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Fresh ordering discovery, spec ownership and the boundaryW2Source integration and the ordering baselineW3Ordering workflow, confidence logic and release controlsW4Evaluation suite, shelf-life guardrails and failure-mode testingW5Replenishment integration, pilot stores and targeted correctionsW6One ordering cycle run under the fresh team, then handover
Reading the bandA bar covers only the weeks its work is named in; the fifth carries two kinds at once.
At the end of W6The cycle closes validation and Agent Care assumes monitoring.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Food & Beverage AI agent
Build a fresh-ordering agent that prices both mistakes.
Show us a fresh category, its waste log and the gaps you already live with. Order short and the sale walks out of the store; order long and it goes in the bin at close of trade — we build the boundary around which of those you are willing to pay for, and who releases the order.
