How Using the Proper Equipment Optimizes Your Cannabis Growing Facility
The cannabis industry is growing at a rapid rate. Ever since Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 in early November 2012, more and more states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, medicinal use, or both. Cannabis businesses are also growing at a rapid rate. Dispensaries, growing facilities, and everything in between are showing up to fulfill the needs of both medical and recreational cannabis customers.
Even though this industry is fast-growing, it’s important to plan out your cannabis business to be competitive over the long-term – as you grow and as the industry grows – and use proper business principles to build a strong foundation. As more states make cannabis fully legal, the industry is only going to get more ruthless.
For cannabis growing facilities, using the proper equipment is key to optimizing your space and workflow.
How to Optimize Your Cannabis Growing Facility’s Workflow
To optimize your cannabis growing facility, you need to dive into your process. You need to plan out both your day-to-day workflow and envision how it will grow over the long-term. The three most important areas to think about are storage, space, and mobility, during every step of your process – from seed to sale.
Storage
Storage is a huge part of your cannabis growing facility’s workflow. You need storage space for growing, drying, trimming, packaging, and more. When you’re fulfilling large orders and producing lots of products on a regular basis, organization is key. If you’re not properly organized, you can easily become inefficient and get behind.
Your product needs to be easily accessible, so your workflow can move quickly and efficiently. Additionally, your storage equipment needs to be able to grow with your growing needs. Don’t purchase small-scale storage equipment when you want to grow your business. Planning for proper storage equipment is key to an optimized facility.
Space
Cannabis growing facilities come in all shapes and sizes. You may be working in a smaller space to start out with, or you may have a large space to work with. Whatever space you’re in, you need to be sure to optimize every square inch. You need to make use of the space you have today, and it needs to be useful for your business as you grow.
To optimize your space for both now and the long-term, you need to think both vertically and horizontally. When storing your cannabis, whether it’s growing, drying, ready for packaging, or in packaging, vertical storage equipment is the best way to maximize your space.
Mobility
In your cannabis growing facility, you’ll have a variety of workstations, shelving units, storage racks, and carts. You have the choice for them to either be stationary or mobile. The best part about choosing to make your equipment mobile is that it can stay in one spot, and then it can be moved at a later time. Making your equipment mobile from the beginning fulfills both stationary and mobile uses.
Mobile equipment allows you to quickly move your product from one station to another, and you can easily keep your floors and facility top-notch by cleaning underneath all of your equipment. With strict industry standards, it’s important to maintain a fully well-kept facility, and mobile equipment allows you to do so.
How to Choose the Proper Equipment for Your Cannabis Growing Facility
When you are purchasing equipment for your cannabis growing facility, you want to make sure that it’s built to last, will grow with you, and optimizes your workflow, and there are certain characteristics and products you want to look for.
To ensure your equipment is durable and long-lasting, it should be anti-microbial, corrosion-resistant, resistant to harsh environments, resistant to harsh cleaning products, and meet strict industry standards. Stainless steel is an industry-leading storage equipment material because it meets all of these requirements.
When you are selecting the types of equipment that will both grow with you and optimize your workflow, you want to look for stainless steel racks, shelving, utility carts, and work tables that are created with a cannabis growing facility and its process in mind.
Stainless steel racks are perfect for tray drying and allow you to pull out your trays of cannabis for easy access during your workflow. Ideally, you want to find racks that can be used as both a hanging rack and a tray drying rack, and tall racks allow for the most storage per square foot.
During trimming, you’ll need stainless work stations that have room for storage, in addition to a work table to trim product on. They also should be adjustable for different heights of workers and different uses.
In addition to tall stainless steel drying racks and work tables for trimming, you’ll want to have stainless steel utility carts, as well as tall stainless steel shelving for storing final products. And to make sure all of your equipment is mobile, stainless steel threaded stem casters will easily fit into your racks, shelving, utility carts, and work tables to ensure for the most optimized workflow possible.
How The Caster Guy Can Help With Your Cannabis Material Handling Needs
The Caster Guy provides industry-leading equipment to optimize your cannabis growing facility. We provide stainless steel shelving, stainless steel threaded stem casters, stainless steel racks and utility carts, and more that are specifically designed for cannabis growing facilities. Our products have everything you need to create an optimized facility and workflow, so that you will stay in business for a long time.
Have a question about our equipment or want to get in touch to see how we can help? Call 1-800-809-7888 or contact us through our website today!
Article originally posted on October 30, 2019; updated on April 21, 2021
