Photo | Courtesy
DiMuzio
August 27, 2019
Manufacturing insights
Temescal Wellness boosts production 50%
Photo/Courtesy
Cannabis plants growing at Worcester's Temescal Wellness cultivation facility.
Worcester cannabis firm Temescal Wellness has raised its product limits as the company onboards more staff and refines its processing and manufacturing procedures. In an interview with WBJ, Director of Operations John DiMuzio spoke about the company’s updated processes and output.
How have production activities ramped up since you opened?
A couple things. It’s just really solid. We are finding operational efficiencies and constantly looking at what we’re doing from a cultivation perspective to maintain yields, higher THC levels, shorter growth cycles and good, solid plants.
By doing that, we’re increasing the amount of flower we’re putting out.
From an extraction and infusion perspective, we’ve added a second shift and 12 new employees, which has allowed us to double our output capacity. We built a very efficient mechanism to process flower and do it quickly.
How have you improved the manufacturing process to get products to shelves faster?
It’s really taking a look at all the individual processes we have. We started in the infusions lab doing process mapping from the very beginning to the very end and meeting with the people doing the work to look for different ways to do it, understand where the flaws are and figure out how we can build a better mousetrap to increase the output and efficiencies.
How has production increased?
From an output perspective, we’ve gone from the ability to do 110,000 units to 220,000 units in any given month. At the extraction lab, I would say it’s probably a 30-to-40% increase from just adding equipment.
Overall, we’ve increased about 50%.
What is production time like?
In a best-case scenario, 16 to 18 weeks by the time you get through testing. Testing has been much better. It used to be an average of two weeks, but that’s down to four or five days.
To extract and infuse takes two or three days, depending on what you’re making, but the issue really is getting the testing back to ensure the product can go out with the proper labels. It’s more the compliance associated with it and not the process.
What is demand like? Are you selling out of products faster than you can process them?
We were getting really close on flower and pre-rolled joints, but not anymore. We’re pretty good across the whole product line.
Have any other limits increased?
We’ve raised limits on pretty much everything. We doubled our concentrates. Pre-rolls are now at four. Freedom pens are at four.
Is flower still the most desired product?
Flower is still No. 1. Flower then cartridges. We don’t see that changing anytime soon. People just like to smoke, and that’s what we’re seeing.
How often do you reevaluate the production staff’s priorities when certain products are more in demand?
That’s one of the critical things. You need to really have a clear understanding of where you need your product and when. If you have aged inventory in the cycle, you have to get it out quickly to make room in vaults for product that’s moving more quickly.
We meet on a regular basis with the retail folks to look at forecasts and produce six-month outlooks, and we review those monthly to form our product list to hand over to production.
You don’t want to build a product that’s not moving just to fill up your shelves. That’s one thing we’ve done really well.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Staff Writer Zachary Comeau.
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