As competition increases in cannabis markets nationwide, operational efficiency is as important as ever. As markets mature and develop, businesses with intelligently designed processes will have a sustainable edge over their competition. Precision in workflow and operations positions your business not only to improve quality but to consistently deliver a product that stands out in a crowded market. Six Sigma is a set of tools and strategies for process improvement. The central idea is to make operations more efficient and produce higher quality outputs.
From Motorola to Marijuana
Originally developed by Motorola in the 1980s, Six Sigma has been used in a variety of industries by industry leaders such as Amazon, Starbucks, Nike and 3M. Six Sigma is a quality focused framework for process improvement. It is used by Fortune 500 companies to hone their operations, however the tools in this framework are useful for businesses of any size. The Six Sigma framework is useful to a cannabis cultivation to improve the quality of their product and to improve their processes. By adopting Six Sigma, a cultivation can achieve consistency in their harvests, improve yields and quality, reduce waste and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
Customer First Approach
Six Sigma is a customer centric system. Every step of Six Sigma starts with the customer. This helps reduce waste and aligns business processes with customer needs and expectations. There are many cases where a business spends lots of time and money towards goals that don’t add value to the customer. Examining each step of your processes from the customers perspective will give your business a competitive advantage in serving the needs of the customers in an efficient manner.
DMAIC - The 5 Phases of Improvement
The DMAIC model is a central part of Six Sigma. DMAIC is a data driven, customer focused problem-solving framework in which each phase builds on the last. I will briefly walk through each stage below. We will use an example of a cultivation struggling with botrytis and see how each stage would apply to solving this problem.
Define: Setting Clear Objectives
Clearly identify the problem or opportunity for improvement. It is important to state the problem in concrete terms. You want to establish specific measurable goals for improvement. In the example of botrytis this could read something like “We aim to reduce botrytis to less than 5% of total yield within the next 6 months.” This is actionable and measurable and provides a timeframe upon which to judge progress.
Measure: Establishing Baseline
Collect data and establish a baseline for current performance. It is important to get a current picture of where things are right now. We want to know ‘where are we now’ so we can measure our progress as we move towards our goal. It is crucial to have a detailed understanding of the current process and current performance. For our example, environmental data would be important as well as past harvest data. We would want a clear picture of how much of our harvest has been affected by botrytis in the last year of harvests on average. The more granular the better. I would want data by strain, by room, by harvest etc.
Analyze: Getting to the Root Cause
Use the collected data to identify potential root causes of the problem. There are a variety of tools available to use for analysis. These tools are under an umbrella called Root Cause Analysis. Once you have identified the root cause of the problem, it is time to make improvements. Botrytis is a fairly simple problem to correct but it can have many different causes. The problem could stem from genetics, irrigation schedules, employee practices, plant spacing and pruning practices, fertilizer, or HVAC performance. Most likely it is going to be some combination of all of the above. We want to look at all possible issues and get to the root cause.
Improve: Developing and Testing Solutions
Brainstorm and test potential solutions on a small scale to assess their effectiveness and feasibility. Adjustments could range from irrigation schedules and environmental controls, to training protocols. This is an iterative phase where you will refine your strategies to combat botrytis effectively.
Control: Sustaining Success
Document the changes and train your team to maintain these new standards. Establish metrics and monitoring systems to ensure the new processes performs as expected. It's not just about reaching the goal but maintaining the new standard over time. Improvements will only be sustained with consistent monitoring.
Conclusion: Embracing Proven Strategies for Success
Legal cannabis is a new industry. However there is no need to pioneer new business practices. Taking what has worked in other industries and applying it to cannabis is a great way to set your business up for long term success. In this industry we deal with enough change and uncertainty. If we can take what other companies have developed and apply it to our industry I think that is a great way to set your business up for success.
Ready to Improve?
The DMAIC model is a very helpful framework to uncover and address issues in your business processes. This is just a brief overview and example of how a cultivation can benefit from this model. There are a number of useful tools outlined in Six Sigma that I didn’t get into here. If you found this useful and would like to implement a structured framework such as Six Sigma to help your business - reach out and schedule a call.