5 Tips For Planning Your Commercial Cannabis Trimming Process

Planning your trimming process for a commercial cannabis cultivation facility is often not a priority. The grow rooms take all the attention! But that’s a mistake. Problems in the trim room can ruin a harvest and cost your business money. Here are a few things to consider when you’re planning your trimming process.

1. Plan your room.
   Your trim room layout should be planned when you’re in the design phase of your facility. That doesn’t mean you’ve simply identified a space as a trim room. It means you know which equipment is going to go in the room, how it will be positioned, where/what type of power you’ll need, how you’re going to be transporting product into and out of the room, what environmental controls you’ll need to keep the room cool… It’s a long list. Trimming is a critical point in your harvesting process, don’t let it be an afterthought. Need some assistance with your room plan? We can help with that.
2. Reduce unnecessary movement.
   Just like any manufacturing line, one of the best ways to increase efficiency is to reduce your staff’s unnecessary or strenuous movement. For example, have the infeed end of your trim line as close as possible to the door where the raw product is being brought in. The outfeed end of the line can be angled towards the door where the material will be leaving after being processed. An excellent example of this is the tennis court scene from the movie The Founder. If you haven’t seen it, prepare to be inspired and watch it here.
3. Train your staff.
   Seems like a given, right? We thought so too, but we’ve come across situations over and over again where the trim crew (including the manager) is made up almost entirely of staff who’ve never worked with cannabis before. Every person that is involved in the trimming process should understand what trimming is, why it’s important, what a good vs bad trim looks like, the importance of bucking properly, and more. Just because somebody has an advanced diploma doesn’t immediately qualify them to manage a trim crew! Try to staff your crew with people that have experience working with and trimming cannabis, and make sure everyone is well-trained.
4. Clearly Identify Roles and Responsibilities.
   You’re always going to have an RPIC in the room, but what about everyone else? A trimming team works best with clearly defined roles and a hierarchy. That doesn’t mean there can’t be movement within the team to keep it interesting, but it does mean there are specialized positions that need more experience than others. We’ve come up with some specific recommendations for properly staffing your trim teams, which you can view at our recent blog post How To Staff a Mobius Trim Line.
5. Stock backup parts.
   We’ve built the Mobius Trimmer M108 to take a lot of punishment. But occasionally, like any type of machinery, something goes wrong and a part may break. If your unit is under warranty, we’ll ship a replacement out to you right away, but you don’t want to be waiting on UPS mid-harvest. We always recommend having a stock of backup parts for critical redundancy. Downtime costs you money, so consider it an investment.

 
Just getting things off the ground planning your facility? Let’s talk. Feel free to contact us at any time and we can help make some recommendations specific to your facility and your business.