With severe consequences for non-compliance, one of the biggest challenges for cannabis operators is the intense scrutiny related to how cannabis products are tracked and monitored through the supply chain, also known as traceability.
The regulations which mandate traceability standards are evolving as marijuana legalization itself evolves. This presents a problem for cannabis manufacturers, distributors, and retailers who are trying to stay abreast of changing legislation while remaining compliant amid the changes.
Perhaps the most complicated factor in cannabis traceability is the tracking of every step of a plant’s journey to the consumer. Cannabis companies operating anywhere in the supply chain need the ability to track and trace cannabis products from seed to sale.
Cannabis products must be monitored and accounted for in the event of an audit or investigation. When this happens, operators anywhere in the cannabis supply chain need to be able to trace their inventory no matter where in its product lifecycle it happens to be.
Cannabis Operators Need Solutions
While the specific needs of the cannabis industry and its myriad regulations may be new challenges to overcome for the cannabis entrepreneur, they are not entirely unfamiliar challenges in other markets. The manufacturing industry has for years leaned on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to effectively track inventory, which makes ERP systems uniquely positioned to be effective solutions for regulatory compliance challenges cannabis operators face.
Manufacturing ERP systems are not only well-known for tracking and monitoring inventory, but also the integration of operational data from various pipelines into a single, unified solution that allows for easy data cross-referencing.
Likewise, cannabis ERP touches every part of its supply chain, from cannabis inventory to warehouse management, shipping, receiving, logistics, and more. Without a purpose-built system, a cannabusiness faces many manual, disconnected processes that are too prone to human error.
Cannabis manufacturers, distributors, and retail vendors use ERP to trace the movements of cannabis products from their initial seedling state through their growth period in greenhouses all the way to harvest and its transformation into retail products.
Additionally, cannabis ERP systems allow operators to track different strains and even individual clones throughout the entire plant lifecycle, as well as control the quality assurance process and any additional steps enacted to ensure product safety.
The tracking ability offered by cannabis ERP grants manufacturers and producers the ability to automate the processes they use to produce their cannabis products, as every step of the process is carefully documented and maintained in a single data storage space.
Depending on where you operate in the supply chain, maintaining licensing requirements, proper testing procedures, product recall capability, compliant transportation, waste disposal protocols while adhering to packaging/labeling requirements and calculating tax liabilities are just a few of compliance benefits with varying degrees of reporting capability offered by seed-to-sale ERP software.
When compliance is not an option and regulations demand a strict record be kept of every step of a marijuana product’s journey from seed to sale, the process of tracking these steps becomes significantly easier with a cannabis-specific ERP system.
Whether you operate as a cannabis cultivator or extractor, a manufacturer or dispensary, cannabis software helps cannabusiness leaders stay ahead of new regulations initiatives with cannabis compliance features built-in.
