TL;DR - We freed BOAZ from a painful manual inventory system, saving the team time and money while unlocking access to invaluable production data. Here are just some of the highlights:
- 80% reduction in reporting time
- 50% labour cost savings
- Access to high-quality data in real-time, helping improve processes & batch performance
- Quick and easy switchover from its previous seed-to-sale
“If I could go back in time, I would switch to Elevated Signals in a heartbeat. For anyone who’s stuck using seed-to-sale & paper-based record keeping, and doesn’t think it’s worth the effort to change, I’d encourage you to make the move as soon as possible. It’s well worth it.”
- Don MacKinnon, Process Lead, BOAZ Pharmaceuticals
Download the case study, or read below.
The Situation
What is BOAZ Craft Cannabis?
Based in Alberta, Canada, BOAZ Craft Cannabis is a licensed producer of high-quality, hand-crafted cannabis. The team focuses on product innovation in its state-of-the-art 21,500 sq. ft facility, where everything from trimming, to curing and packaging is done by hand.
Identifying the need for process improvement
When the company began its operations in 2018, the team implemented a seed-to-sale software platform. They soon realized that this system was challenging to use and inventory numbers were inaccurate, resulting in too much time being spent manually verifying and reconciling records in a separate system. “We were spending hours each day just inputting inventory numbers into a spreadsheet. For a small and very busy team, this was not a good use of our time,” said BOAZ’s Packaging Lead, Jessica Chenuz. Instead of focusing solely on their products, the QA and packaging teams were tackling the issues and inaccuracies that came from using the software.
On top of its inefficiencies, the software didn’t provide the real-time production inventory data or quality control visibility that BOAZ needed to track manufacturing processes and monitor the health of the business. “If I needed to pull reports for our shareholders, I would have to wait for manual quarterly cycle counts,” said Janette Valencia, Senior Accountant at BOAZ.
At first, BOAZ was hesitant to find a new solution. The team was worried it would be difficult, time-consuming, and costly to switch, implement and learn a new platform. “Because of our experience with our old system, we had lost trust in every seed-to-sale software out there,” said Janette, “and while we looked at enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, they didn’t solve our paper problem and were extremely expensive.”
“It didn’t take us long to realize that Elevated Signals was much easier to use than our old system, and exactly what we needed to manage our batch records and inventory.” - Don MacKinnon, Process Lead, BOAZ Pharmaceuticals.
The Solution
BOAZ improved inventory processes and switched to digital batch records
“We knew of other producers that had faced similar challenges with inefficient systems,” said Process Lead, Don MacKinnon, “but after speaking to them about their success managing audits, inventory and batch records once they’d switched to Elevated Signals, we knew we had to bite the bullet and move away from the process we’d been using since day one.”
“We looked at ERP systems, but they didn’t solve our paper problem, and were extremely expensive”
Janette Valencia, Senior Accountant, BOAZ.
Elevated Signals provides cloud-based manufacturing software designed specifically for cannabis producers. It streamlines data collection for inventory management and quality control recordkeeping into one platform that can be customized to a facility’s processes and workflows.
Once the decision to switch had been made, it only took a matter of weeks for BOAZ to be up and running on Elevated Signals. “We were worried it would be a difficult transition but it was very smooth. It didn’t take us long to realize that Elevated Signals was much easier to use than our old system, and exactly what we needed to manage our batch records and inventory.”
What really impressed BOAZ during and after the implementation process was Elevated Signals’ top-notch customer service. As Don notes, “if we have a problem, the customer success team is always on hand to help us - the support has been great.”
Thanks to Elevated Signals, BOAZ is now getting granular, high-quality information that the team can use to examine trends and improve their products. According to Don, “if we have a crop that turns out really nicely, we can go back and see exactly the fertigation that we used so that we can replicate that process.”
Another benefit of having this wealth of data is that BOAZ can more accurately track its product allocation during post-harvest processes. The inventory and finance teams can now see how much processing loss cannabis material is produced during a preroll run, and use this information to identify any surplus inventory, the value of it, and what product category it can be allocated to next - thereby improving the performance of its production processes.
Each department now has access to the information they need—when they need it. As a result, their productivity and ability to scale have increased. BOAZ’s Packaging Lead, Jessica, can now focus on analyzing the inventory flow and trends instead of battling issues with the old system.
For finance, pulling reports for shareholders is far more efficient:
“We used to do manual cycle counts regularly, as we didn’t trust the data from our old software. Elevated Signals is customized to our facility’s processes, records are paperless and data quality is accurate, meaning reporting is far more efficient.” Janette Valencia, Senior Accountant at BOAZ
The Success
You download the full case study here ✌️
Take a look at our other case studies, where we speak to customers including Pure Sunfarms, Rubicon Organics and Organnicraft.
Looking to replace your Seed to Sale system, see how Elevated Signals could help at your facility.
