Cannabis course · post-harvest · scorecard
Count it the same way.
The walk sheet shows you the waste. A scorecard tells you whether it's shrinking. These are ten post-harvest measures, each defined so two people would count it the same way, with where the data already lives and what to watch for. Put three on a board first. The rest can wait for the weekly review.
Safety · Quality · Delivery · Cost
Ten measures, grouped the way a board is
Safety always goes first on the board, measured the way your site already measures it. After that, these ten. None of them needs new software: the weights, dates and results are already in your scale logs, lab reports and tracking system.
Quality
| Measure | How to count it | Where the data lives | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade mix (bud-to-shake) Watch for: the grading standard drifting. Check a sample against the written standard. | Trim output by grade, as a share of total trimmed weight: bud, smalls, shake and trim. | Weigh-out by grade at the end of trim | Daily, by line |
| Lab pass rate, first submission Watch for: counting a batch that passed after remediation as a pass. It's a first-time fail. | Batches that pass the full panel the first time, out of batches submitted. | Lab results | Every batch, reviewed weekly |
| Moisture or water activity at release Watch for: different sampling. Same spot in the lot, same wait, every time. | The reading for each lot at release, against your spec. | Meter log | Every lot |
Delivery
| Measure | How to count it | Where the data lives | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry and cure days against target Watch for: treating shorter as better. Dry and cure are process time. The measure is drift from target, either way. | Days in dry and days in cure for each batch, next to the target for that strain. | Tote cards, the tracking system | Every batch |
| Lab turnaround Watch for: blaming the lab for your own wait. Split pull-to-pickup from pickup-to-results. | Days from sample pull to results. | Sample log, lab portal | Every batch, reviewed weekly |
| Vault aging Watch for: the average hiding the oldest lot. Track the oldest one by name. | Days from harvest to release, and from release to sale or transfer. | The tracking system | Weekly |
Cost
| Measure | How to count it | Where the data lives | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trim rate Watch for: comparing across grades, or ranking people. Hand trim on top grade is slower on purpose. Use it to plan, not to blame. | Grams trimmed per trimmer-hour, by grade. | Weigh-out and the time clock | Daily, by line |
| Wet-to-dry ratio Watch for: comparing strains to each other. Compare a strain to itself. | Dry weight divided by wet weight at harvest, for each batch. | Harvest and dry weights in the tracking system | Every batch |
| Weight variance Watch for: counting logged moisture loss. That's a real adjustment. The measure is the variance nobody can explain. A discrepancy you cannot explain may be reportable within 24 hours (935 CMR 500.110(9)); agree your threshold with your compliance lead before adjusting. | Scale weight against system weight, for each lot. | Weigh station, the tracking system | Every lot |
| Post-release shrink Watch for: mixing moisture loss with loss events. Split them. | Weight lost between release and sale or transfer, as a share of released weight. | Adjustments in the tracking system | Monthly |
The daily board
Start with three
A board with ten numbers on it gets read by nobody. Start with one measure for quality, one for flow and one for cost, under your safety measure. Add a fourth only when the team asks for it.
- QGrade mix, by line, every day. It moves fastest, the crew can see their own number, and it's where trim gets better or worse first.
- DLots waiting after their results came back. A daily count of released lots still sitting in the vault. It's the waiting you can actually attack, since the test hold itself is required.
- CTrim rate, by grade, every day. For planning crews and spotting a setup problem, never for ranking people. When it drops, ask what got in the way.
Ten minutes, standing up
Run the huddle
- 1Same time, same place, every day. At the board, at the start of the shift. Ten minutes, standing.
- 2Safety first, always. Anything that happened or nearly happened since the last huddle.
- 3Green or red, against a target the team set. No speeches about green. Every red gets the same three questions: what happened, what's one action, who owns it and by when.
- 4Write the action on the board. Tomorrow's huddle starts by checking yesterday's actions.
- 5Send up what the team can't fix. If a red needs another department, it goes to the next level's huddle that day, with a name on it.
If you want help designing the tiers above this one, my free daily management skill walks through it. Once a measure has a few weeks of data, the control chart skill tells you whether a bad day is noise or a real change.
Free · one page · print it
The post-harvest huddle board
One printed page for one week: safety, the three starter measures with room for one more, a green or red box for each day, and a log for every red: what happened, the action, the owner and the date. Pin it where the huddle happens.
Post-harvest