Cannabis products are becoming a widely used commodity within our society, this is

due to its well-known health benefits that people get from its consumption. An
entrepreneur that recently started his CBD Oil company called Silverleaf CBD, Pieter
van Greunen, shared his story on why he decided to go into the business. He says
he had an accident to his neck that left him paralyzed from the chest going down, in
his words, Pieter said “I had been on chronic medication for nearly two and a half
years, when I discovered the miracle that is CBD oil. I had my reservations at first,
but since trying CBD oil I can honestly say that for me, there is no medication that
has matched it. I went from being depressed and sickly with the added side effect of
short-term memory loss, to managing my pain with CBD oil and I’ll never look back. I
knew that I wasn’t alone in my suffering and desire for a product that treats my body
and mind better than mainstream pharmaceuticals. This led me to create the Silver
Leaf CBD brand and make the benefits of CBD more accessible to South Africans.”
(Grunen, 2022)

This proves to say CBD Oil or cannabis in general has a lot of health benefits. And it
also proves that it is a viable business that can only grow bigger with time. But for
the cannabis industry to grow, or for businesses in the industry to maximize their
production and reach, there’s a need to incorporate operation management
strategies. Each business needs to be on its toes with OM strategies because they
have proven time and again how big of a role, they play in a business’s growth.
Below are some of the important operations management factors that the cannabis
industry needs.
PRODUCTION SYSTEM DESIGNING
Production system designing is a pivotal operations management factor that tackles
the imagination and creation of products that solve consumers problems or satisfies
the specific needs of the end users in each market. Due to the ever-expanding
growth in consumers who are desiring cannabis infused products, The cannabis
industry is growing rapidly, and since the industry is growing, businesses producing
cannabis products like CBD oil need to have efficient operations management
systems put in place. This means incorporating production system designs that are
creative, safe and efficient enough to satisfy customers and effectively compete with
competitors.

In the production of medical marijuana products, errors are sometimes inevitable and
are extremely costly. A mistake could lead to crop damage, product contamination
and unnecessary waste which could all lead to high production costs. Not only are
these mishaps costly, but they could also lead to regulatory failures resulting into the
loss of permits for cannabis cultivation and pharmaceutical production. Therefore, it
is very important for cannabis business managers to implement efficient and well-
engineered production systems from the cultivation of cannabis, the processing of
the extracts to the packaging and distribution of the finished products. For instance,
in South Africa, for cannabis manufactures to acquire or maintain their cannabis
licences, they need to adhere to the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) in SA.
(Africa, 2018). The product labelling must specifically outline the chemicals in the
product, doses, side effects and other labels that accurately meet the country’s
regulatory requirements. (Connie, 2019).
PLANNING OF THE OPERATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND
ACTIVITIES
It is without a doubt that planning operation management strategies and activities are
very important for every business. For example, in a CBD Oil producing company, a
new client comes on board, and they are proposing to manufacture packaging
products like glass bottles and plastic bottles for the oil to be sold in. To start with,
this is the moment the operations manager rises to the occasion and make sure that
a budget is allocated towards the project, that the correct department of employees
are assigned for the job, and to make sure that everyone involved with the
operations are aware of the roles they must play in it.

When a strategy like this is put in place, mangers need to consider customer service,
product quality and cost efficiency or in other words what resources are need for the
operation. This gives a broad plan for the company to work with so that they
effectively maximise the production. For instance, most cannabis infused products
companies use recycled marijuana leaves that were used for extraction as an
element to their packaging specifically paper bags because hemp/cannabis leaves
make great and durable products. In doing so, not only do they provide quality
products to their customers but also reduce their cost of production.

MONITORING AND IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

In any business, growth should be top priority and business managers should
monitor and improve performance constantly if they strive for growth and market
expansion. A great elaborative example of the importance of improving performance,
stems from a conversation between a program director and a member of her clinical
staff who was the program supervisor. During the conversation, she asked the
supervisor, “So tell me, how's your group doing?” The supervisor responded with,
“Oh, they're doing really well.” The director then asked her another question to say,
“How do you know?”, This question confused both the director and her supervisor
because all along they relied on formal or undocumented assessments of clinical
performance, they didn’t have a strategic monitoring process in place. (Medicine, et
al.)

As we can see, monitoring and improving performance is pivotal in a lot of industries

including the medical field, which is why it is also important for CBD Oil companies in
the cannabis industry to implement this operations management strategy. Improving
performance also works hand in hand or influences both the quality of the product
and the quality assurance to consumers. By monitoring the performance of the
business, there’s more room for innovative ideas to improve production or service
delivery to pop in, costs that need to be cut down recognized, loopholes to be
unveiled and many more issues slowing down the production process be tackled.

Performance improvement doesn’t need to be too complex or expensive. Business

managers therefore need to consider how they can integrate cost effective
monitoring systems to track performance through data analysing for a period of time,
which will be assed at the end of that given period to see where the company can try
to improve their production.