Scaling a Cannabis Business: Why Operational Visibility Is the New Competitive Edge

Marijuana pre-roll sales are booming. Cannabis pre-rolls tallied upwards of $4.1 billion in sales over just 18 months, and that number is expected to keep growing exponentially. But here's the catch…

Most cannabis production operations are still flying blind. They lack any real visibility into what's happening on their production floors, and if you don't know what's going wrong you can't course-correct.

Enter cannabis pre-roll automation systems. Successful operators today aren't just buying faster equipment. They are prioritizing technology that gives them 100% visibility into every aspect of the production process.

Here's what you'll learn:

1. Operational Visibility Is More Important Than Raw Speed

2. Scaling Comes With Unique Challenges For Cannabis Operators

3. Top Cannabis Automation Companies To Know

4. How To Build a Smarter Production Floor From the Ground Up

Operational Visibility Is More Important Than Raw Speed

Cannabis operators want their pre-roll lines to work as quickly and efficiently as possible. Nobody has time for slow machinery. But speed isn't everything.

If you can't track critical operating data like quality levels, waste volumes, and downtime, then moving fast will literally cost you money.

Operational visibility means having access to data at every stage of cannabis production; from grinding and filling all the way through to packaging. Transparency into your operation empowers faster decisions and continuous improvements.

The best operators now use software for real-time cannabis production tracking to optimize efficiency and react instantly to any issue that arises on the production floor. Operational visibility is the competitive advantage that will define which cannabis brands scale profits, and which ones just scale.

Here's an example:

Instead of blindly increasing production until they hit their limits, cannabis operators who leverage automation technology with built-in tracking are able to identify bottlenecks as they happen. Then they apply resources to fix those problems before they limit output.

That level of visibility is crucial once the market starts to saturate. Between June 2023 and June 2024 alone pre-roll sales increased nearly 12% year over year cementing their status as cannabis' fastest growing product category. Operators who can scale their output without sacrificing quality or margins will come out on top.

Scaling Comes With Unique Challenges For Cannabis Operators

Many cannabis businesses reach a certain point and simply cannot scale their output any further. And it has little to do with market demand.

The problem lies in production. Cannabis companies that run on manual labor, guesswork, and siloed machines just don't know their numbers. Not even close.

These operators genuinely have no idea what their maximum output is, or even where the biggest bottlenecks are on their production floor. Without visibility into their operations, it's all just educated guesses.

Now consider that cannabis pre-roll production is uniquely difficult to scale for several reasons:

• Highly variant SKUs. Pre-roll packaging comes in all shapes, sizes, dosages, flavors, coatings, counts, and more. Tracking ingredients and accurately billing that variation keeps getting harder as operators scale.

• Extensive compliance requirements. Seed-to-sale tracking laws vary from state-to-state, creating complex data needs for multi-market operators.

• Margin compression. As demand for pre-rolls has skyrocketed, average selling prices have actually decreased by nearly 16% since January of 2023.

• Rising labor costs. Labor shortages are hitting every sector of the cannabis industry and production operators are not immune.

By introducing automation into the mix without proper visibility, cannabis brands only amplify their inefficiencies. Trying to scale your production when you have no visibility creates more waste, more inconsistency, and seriously hurts your bottom line.

Here's the key to getting around this problem:

Brand owners that invest in cannabis automation technologies with analytics and production tracking built in are armed with invaluable visibility into their operation. This allows them to pinpoint inefficiencies as they occur and prevent chronic inefficiencies from forming.

Top Cannabis Automation Companies To Know

Want all the leaders in cannabis automation in one place? Here are the top 5 cannabis automation brands disrupting the industry right now.

1. Sorting Robotics

Winner, winner cannabis automation dinner. If there's a single brand that is crushing the competition right now it would be Sorting Robotics. Founder and CEO Nohtal Partansky used to work for NASA and that attention to detail shines through in their products. They don't just build cannabis factories, they engineer AI-powered robotic cannabis production lines from the ground up.

Sorting Robotics currently has two machines on the market; Jiko and Stardust. Jiko is for infusion, mixing cannabis with all sorts of goodies from oil and honey to sugar pearls and crumble. Stardust is used for kief coating and delivers robotic precision to cannabis production like never before.

What truly sets Sorting Robotics apart from their competition is their insistence on providing real-time data with every machine. Not only can operators track every input and output on their floor, but they also became the cannabis industry's first official Systems Integrator. Need your whole production line talking to each other? Sorting Robotics can make that happen.

2. Accelerant Manufacturing

Accelerant hit the scene recently with their innovative PRO2 machine. Along with selling fully automated pre-roll packaging systems, Accelerant also operates on a Production-as-a-Service model. What does that mean? Basically, they give operators the option to lease equipment instead of buying it outright. Their proprietary software has already seen a 43% improvement in throughput speeds.

3. RollPros

You've likely seen RollPros cannabis automation machinery all over the place. Their signature Blackbird machine utilizes radial compaction technology to consistently crank out high-quality joints at scale. Gone are the days of batch-style cannabis automation with RollPros continuous pre-roll solutions.

4. Hefestus

If you're looking for flexibility when it comes to your automation solution then you need to check out Hefestus. From their AuraOne machine to their larger scale AuraX model, Hefestus has you covered with proper support to back up their products.

5. Canapa Solutions

Canapa Solutions is another cannabis pre-roll automation brand worth knowing. Their fully automated JuanaRoll machine works in tandem with their Illuminate manufacturing intelligence software to provide operators with the dashboards and fault reporting they need to keep production efficient.

How To Build a Smarter Production Floor From the Ground Up

Figuring out how to automate your cannabis production operation the right way isn't something you'll learn overnight. But if you know what to look for the process is simple.

Audit your current operation. Visibility comes from understanding where your current weaknesses are. What areas of production are you flying completely blind in? Take notes. This will be your checklist when you start talking to cannabis equipment manufacturers.

Buy connected systems. Every piece of equipment you bring onto your production floor should communicate with every other piece of equipment. Siloed data means guesswork, and guesswork costs money.

Optimize for data, not speed. Cannabis operators that automate their production lines just to do it are leaving massive amounts of value on the table. Collecting and acting on data your equipment generates is the name of the game.

Scale intelligently. You don't need to automate your entire operation overnight. Start with your biggest bottleneck and expand from there.

Conclusion

The cannabis industry is growing at breakneck speeds, but that doesn't mean scaling your business is simple. If you want to start rolling higher quantities of consistent, compliant products you need complete transparency on what's happening at every stage of production.

Marijuana pre-roll sales have increased by double-digit percentages year over year for the better part of a decade. That rate of growth will slow at some point and brands who haven't differentiated themselves will struggle to keep up with the competition.

Automation paired with proper production visibility tools isn't a luxury. At this point, it's a requirement for cannabis operators that don't want to get left behind.