In the summer of 2022, our team embarked on a business trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We endured long days of travel, fuelled by a simple diet and the comfort of rental cars. Our mission in Albuquerque marked the culmination of our journey, where we conducted site visits and gathered data on cannabis regulation and compliance. Our mission had anchored us to this particular location for what felt like a marathon stretch, and today marked the final chapter before our return journey to Australia. Despite fatigue, we remained dedicated to our objectives and approached each task with professionalism and focus.
Yet, amidst all of this, Marissa's challenges at her facility put our own struggles into perspective. With the daunting task of manually sub-lotting 16,000 units into lots of 20….with only one day down and five more to go.
Marissa, the sole employee with the capacity to manage the workload, faced daily challenges due to the influx of new orders and time constraints at the medium-sized company's facility. The task of splitting lots, crucial for compliance, consumed up to a week of her time, intensifying the pressure to meet deadlines and creating bottlenecks if she was slightly thrown off track.
As the inventory manager, Marissa was entrusted with this critical responsibility. Nevertheless, there seemed to be a misunderstanding regarding the extent of her workload, compounded by the less desirable nature of the task. Consequently, operational efficiency suffered, with Marissa representing a significant bottleneck in the workflow.
Problem 1: The continuous influx of new orders throughout the week leads to increased sub-lotting, leaving Marissa unable to establish clear, achievable goals and deadlines. This lack of direction diminishes her ability to plan ahead and prioritize tasks, resulting in reduced efficiency.
Problem 2: Marissa is tasked with completing a repetitive and monotonous task, leading to burnout, boredom, and exhaustion. With no opportunity to rotate tasks among team members in a busy facility, her skill development is stifled, leaving her feeling uninspired and unmotivated.
From a business perspective:
Problem 3: Burnout results in decreased productivity and lowered quality of work, impacting overall efficiency and output. Errors and oversights become more common, compromising the quality of work produced by employees.
Problem 4: Repetitive tasks hinder innovation and increase turnover costs. Marissa’s creativity is hampered, affecting her ability to innovate and adapt to market demands. Higher turnover rates lead to increased recruitment and training expenses for the company.
Problem 5: Burnout increases the risk of errors and compliance issues, contributing to a negative organizational culture. Fatigued employees are prone to mistakes, posing a risk of compliance violations and legal repercussions, while fostering a detrimental work environment.
Problem 6: A negative organizational culture tarnishes the company's reputation, impacting relationships with clients, partners, and potential employees. Decreased productivity, lower quality of work, and higher turnover rates reflect poorly on the organization, undermining its credibility and trustworthiness.
With all that being said, this was an outdated issue that we identified early, and also an issue that we knew had to be remedied in a way that made sense with the facility’s production workflow.
One of Blakthumb’s first goals was to provide a comprehensive solution to not only manage your current operations more efficiently but also to leverage past experiences for future success. In Marissa’s case, this is what our robust inventory could provide - with our BioTrack integration being the cherry on top. Blakthumb has the potential to mitigate all the above problems and enhance efficiency.
The BioTrack integration within the Blakthumb platform simplifies the process of managing and tracking product lots, particularly in splitting lots. In other words, it can significantly expedite the split and conversion processes in BioTrack by automating data entry and mapping workflows. This includes the importing of regulatory IDs and information of required product lots for Track and Trace in a user-friendly format, reducing manual data entry and eliminating the need for users to juggle multiple software systems. In the case of splitting lots, Blakthumb will ask you once how you would like to configure the splits, and then, it will do the splits on your behalf. Giving you the freedom to determine how you operate within regulations rather than letting regulations determine your operation.
Interested in learning more? 👉🏾 Schedule a 30-minute chat with a member of the Blakthumb team here.
Read more about operations here 👉🏾 https://www.blakthumb.com/blog/blakthumb-hub---resources-news
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