Boosting yield by eliminating waste

Cannabis Business Times recently hosted a webinar to discuss the eight most common wastes in cannabis cultivation. Almost 50% of the attendees identified labor and staff efficiency as the biggest culprit of waste in their operation, followed by harvest/post-harvest and then energy/power usage. The session was hosted by Pipp Horticulture's Michael Williamson and Anders Peterson, directors of cultivation and horticulture, respectively. When evaluating your operation, “every action, minute and movement … should add value to the plant and the end product or the customer,” explained Williamson. Anything else is considered waste. The term “lean manufacturing” describes a management system that maximizes customer value and eliminates waste. This idea began in the 1950s and ‘60s with Taiichi Ohno and the Toyota company, when he outlined the “key types of wastes that were holding back efficiency on the factory floor,” Peterson added. Ohno identified seven key wastes in the industry, and Western lean manufacturers identified an eighth: non-utilized talent. The eight “wastes” can be remembered via “downtime” – Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transport, Inventory, Motion and Extra processing. Defects, defined by Williamson, are “any error or conditions that cause rework, delays or yield loss.” These errors could be in the plant itself, in the production process or even the environment. Defects, which can cost you “typically about three times in labor and morale and yield,” usually occur due to inconsistent training, poor scheduling and unclear quality control checkpoints. Williamson highly recommends monitoring your yield consistency, because any grower can have one great harvest, but a great grower consistently has great harvests. Overproduction is “one of the easiest wastes to overlook,” said Peterson, because it usually feels productive. Overproduction can be mixing more nutrient solutions than you need, overstocking supplies, cloning more plants than you can harvest, trimming faster than can be packaged and even redundant data entry. Overproduction ties up labor, space and cash without adding real value to the end product. “When production matches real demand, you free up space, reduce chaos and give your team more time to focus on quality,” Williamson said. The best way to avoid excess inventory is by assigning someone to manage it and order more materials. Overproduction and excess inventory tie in with extra processing. By doing more work than is necessary, you can harm your plants and stress your workers out. Make a clear decision on what a finished plant or final product looks like. Leave no room for misinterpretation. Any amount of waiting can “quietly eat into your yield and efficiency,” Peterson said. In cannabis cultivation, the most common examples of waiting would be holding rooted clones for too long before transplanting, leaving a flower room empty between harvests, waiting on lab results, waiting on a spare part and even waiting for the higher-ups to make decisions. This waiting period can be reduced with better coordination between departments, better scheduling and stocking critical spare parts. The waste known as non-utilized talent shows that “people’s ideas and skills are just as valuable as physical production efficiency,” Williamson stated. This is “one of the most overlooked wastes of cultivation” and can cause employees to feel undervalued. Williamson pointed out that “the people doing the work see the [problems] first” but they might not feel comfortable sharing their ideas. Be sure to listen to your employees, follow up on their suggestions and reward creativity. Unnecessary movement of people, materials and products is a waste of time and energy. Analyze your production system and make sure every step is necessary. Any touch point that doesn’t add value to the end customer increases handling time, contamination risk, room for damage and worker fatigue. All products should move in a linear flow pattern if possible, preventing any back-tracking, and all tools and materials should be in close proximity. Excess motion can include unneeded walking or human movement, but it can also be something as simple as having a cluttered workspace. Williamson is a strong believer of “returning your space to zero,” as a clean space equals a clean workflow and a clean mind. Although there are multiple aspects of your business to evaluate and check for potential waste, business owners should start small and tackle one problem at a time. Peterson believes this system is great for “helping you spot waste quickly, standardizing improvements and focusing your team’s eye on what actually adds value to the plant, the product and the customer.” by Kelsi Devolve