The Future of Cannabis Supply Chain and Inventory Management

From the Desk of Paul Botto,

We have all felt the pain of the deeply-rooted supply chain and inventory management inefficiencies in cannabis for too long. Cannabis Industry requirements vary from state to state, but overall the consistent issue is the amount of data pushed and pulled into the product from the time the seed is planted to the point of purchase at retail. The data collected, processed, and transported at each stop on the supply chain is far from optimized and causes all sorts of inventory, storage, and cost issues. What the industry needs is a “fungible” UPC (universal product code) with taxonomy and accessibility that allows for the seamless, two-way transfer of data at every stop in the cannabis product life cycle. Ideally, it should be able to handle the regulatory and POS prep functionality requested by (and increasingly, required by) major retailers as well.

The good news for the cannabis industry is this fungible UPC (F-UPC) is not only possible, it is already here.  

MEET THE LucidID

LucidIDs are already on more than 9MM packages and growing daily. These “fungible codes” are automatically applied to the regulatory label during production. Once on-pack, they are able to transmit limitless amounts of data about the products they are assigned to, allowing brands to share product information, COA’s (certificate of analysis), and reward values to their users, just to name a few. While LucidIDs are analogous to the notion of a UPC in some ways, what makes them the ideal cannabis UPC is their fidelity and their fungibility. Every individual package gets a unique LucidID, allowing superior fidelity, tracking, and data transfer down to the individual unit level. But it is the fungibility of LucidIDs that allows this functionality to be utilized by virtually any user in the supply chain for widely varied purposes. Whether you are a consumer, budtender, distributor, or retailer, fungible LucidIDs become the right tool, at the right time, for any user to capture or add information about a product, batch, order, or even a “collection” of LucidIDs.

It is from these “collections” of fungible LucidIDs that the story of the inefficient cannabis supply chain changes dramatically.  

THE POWER OF LucidID “COLLECTIONS”

Collections are what allow fungible LucidIDs to scale and serve the entire supply chain so brilliantly. Lucid Case IDs, for example, are a collection of all the LucidIDs (individual units) and all the data about those units within that case, allowing for the touchless, two-way transfer of product, batch, and order data with a single scan of that CaseID. Anyone from production, to distribution, to retail intake, to checkout prep can perform what may have taken hours in just minutes. We could even create a collection at a higher level, like a Lucid Pallet ID, which would collect each CaseID and each LucidID inside each case into one single scan. Whichever segment of the industry your business is in, the impact of optimized inventory management and enabling a single-scan intake and outflow for entire pallet-sized orders cannot be understated. It would virtually eliminate all time-consuming and error-prone manual entry, eliminate the costly and unsightly secondary stickering on brand packaging, and enable real-time inventory visibility to everyone.  

To see how LucidIDs function and impact your brand, distribution, or retail operation, jump to the proper section below. MSOs and vertical seed-to-sale companies, read on in entirety because you get it all!

BRAND:

Streamlined Production ► Fully Optimized Pick-Pack-Ship ► Retailer Satisfaction ► Shorter Production To Shelf Lag ► Real-Time Inventory

LucidIDs are automatically applied to the regulatory label during production with zero impact on operational overhead. The on-pack LucidIDs are passed by a scanner as a case is packed, automatically creating a precise digital manifest of every item within the case. When the brand’s ERP (enterprise resource planning) environment confirms the contents of the packed case, bin, or pallet matches the order, it automatically pushes the specific order Child METRC IDs (or other regulatory IDs) back to the collection level and to all the unit-level LucidIDs as well. The shipment now goes out with every detail required for the next stop in the supply chain where a single scan of the CaseID, Bin, or Pallet ID will capture it all. Better yet, the receiving distributor or retailer can easily add information without requiring any additional labeling. For brands, products tagged in this way significantly shortens the time from production to the shelf, eliminates big ugly stickers applied at retail or other stops along the way, and it allows for the real-time tracking of what products are shipped, received, and sold. This gives the brand exact visibility regarding where their inventory sits at all times. Products integrated in these ways have already become buying decisions for many retailers, giving brands a major advantage in getting their products on the shelf and staying there.

Brands now have inventory visibility from their possession all the way through distribution, retail, and consumption, plus a direct connection to consumers and budtenders right off of their packaging.

DISTRIBUTOR:

Touchless Intake ► Efficient Auditing ► Misplaced Product Relocation ► Touchless Shipping ► Real-Time Inventory Visibility ► Retailer Satisfaction 

Of course, a distributor is now able to capture every product, order, and regulatory detail they need into their inventory management system with a single scan. If they like, they can even pass a proper warehouse location back to the CaseID, Bin, or Pallet ID and to every LucidID within in the same step, setting themselves up for streamlined auditing and dead-simple misplaced product relocation. All of this without needing to open the case, bin, or break down the pallet.

It is a game-changer on the order fulfillment side as well. As with the brand, a simple scan of the CaseID or Pallet ID matches the order in the inventory management system, associates the new Child METRC IDs or other regulatory tracking tags to all unit LucidIDs, and updates the inventory records automatically. No manual entry, no mistakes, with real-time visibility on inventory at all times all the way through retail.

Distributors gain a complete touchless inventory management solution with LucidIDs.

RETAILER:

Touchless Intake ► Touchless POS Prep ► Real-Time Inventory Visibility ► Lower Space and Capital Requirements

You likely can see the trend here and how these efficiencies add up to a massive win for retailers. The entire intake and POS (point of sale) preparation for a full order, even one that made several stops along the way, can also be completed with a single scan. Product, batch, and regulatory information are captured instantly and the LucidIDs inside the case, bin, or pallet are automatically assigned information that allows them to be scanned seamlessly at checkout.  No more painstakingly applying secondary barcodes, no more big ugly stickers covering up beautiful brand packaging, and the typical 20-30hr/wk inventory process is reduced to minutes. The retailer can maintain healthy stock while carrying much less on-hand, saving space and capital, and the burden of preventing stock-outs can be pushed back to where it belongs - in the hands of the distributor and the brand.

Retailers gain a complete, Touchless Intake and POS preparation process and finally can deliver a clean real-time inventory signal that is critical to efficient inventory management.

OPTIMIZING THE CANNABIS EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE

It has been our vision to optimize the cannabis consumer and supply chain experience from the day we started Lucid Green. We have been focused on providing the best experience for the consumer, educating budtenders, and allowing brands to connect with their audience through transparency and rewards programs delivered by LucidIDs. The time has come for the LucidID to optimize the supply chain as well and serve the industry as The Fungible UPC for Cannabis

Sincerely,

Paul Botto

paul@lucidgreen.io

President, Lucid Green