From a 5,000-Unit Daily Struggle
to 2 Million Pre-Rolls a Month

At Rebel Roots, the operating principle was simple: protect the filling station from downtime. In the broader multi-machine workflow, two people focused on loading cones while two focused on closing. Plates moved between three states—inside the machine, preloaded with cones or ready to be emptied and reset.

When one run finished, the operator could release the completed plate and immediately load the next one. Closing could catch up more quickly than cone loading, so available labor was directed toward keeping loaded plates in front of the machine. That prioritization kept the highest-value part of the line producing.

Dean's production planning used a conservative seven-hour operating day. Lunch, breaks, cleaning and normal downtime were already included in the reported 20,000-unit daily baseline. An experienced team could reach approximately 25,000 per machine. When an order required a push, Dean reported output reaching 30,000.

Rebel Roots produced 109 mm, 84 mm and 70 mm formats across a demanding multi-SKU schedule. For large production runs, the operation could dedicate a machine or side of the room to a specific SKU. For smaller half-day runs, the team stored the alternate plates beneath the worktable and changed them when needed.

That flexibility allowed Rebel Roots to organize around the size of the order rather than forcing every SKU through the same production plan. Dean estimated that a 10,000-unit order could be completed in approximately four to five hours, placed into about 20 production bins and moved downstream when the packaging team was ready.

The result was a high-output system with a relatively small physical footprint—and no need to run pre-roll production every day simply to keep up.

Before FlexPak, attempted production and sellable production were two very different numbers. Dean estimated that the standardized FlexPak workflow produced more than 90% accuracy across both weight and inspection, with results often closer to 97%. He contrasted that with earlier periods when failed inspection and rework could consume nearly half of the team's attempted output.

The result depended on more than the machine. Dean repeatedly emphasized correct grinding, sifting, material preparation, density settings and cleaning. FlexPak gave the team the mechanical consistency to turn those procedures into repeatable output.

As an early adopter, Rebel Roots ran the equipment at a volume FlexPak had not previously seen from a single customer. That production revealed wear points that lower-volume testing could not. Dean and the FlexPak team identified heat-related plate movement, vibration-pin wear and spring-tension issues on early-generation equipment. FlexPak responded with steel reinforcement, improved motors and hardware changes designed for sustained commercial use.

Dean also described plates surviving repeated drops and machines continuing to operate after years of heavy production. When older units eventually showed uneven wear, FlexPak refurbished them—rebuilding the interior and updating the equipment to the then-current configuration for a comparatively small fee.

For another multi-state operator's perspective on scaling from a single machine to a multi-line operation, see how Parallel's Surterra Wellness rebuilt its pre-roll production from 15,000 to 50,000 pre-rolls a day.

Dean described maintenance as straightforward, affordable and built around components his team could understand. When a repair fell outside his comfort zone, FlexPak supplied clear videos and live guidance.

One support experience stood above the rest. After a controller problem interrupted production, a FlexPak representative traveled from Oklahoma to Oregon over the weekend. He repaired the affected controller, addressed another older unit and installed preventative upgrades across several machines during the same visit. For Rebel Roots, support was not separated from the production reality. It was built around getting the line ready for the next operating day.

Dean evaluated ROI against the contribution generated by the orders running through each machine. Depending on the product, order size and margin, he estimated that Rebel Roots recovered the cost of a FlexPak unit within approximately four days to two weeks of production.

That payback period changed how the company scaled. Instead of waiting months or years to justify another large capital purchase, Rebel Roots could use the returns from one machine to add the next layer of capacity. The equipment moved 'into the black,' in Dean's words, almost immediately.