As one of the first cannabis manufacturers in New Jersey, the Jersey Smooth team set out to find equipment not just to start up their business but to ease the workload on their small team.
Shortly into their search, they came across Vape-Jet, and, as they say, the rest is history. Jersey Smooth quickly went from operating four single tables to producing thousands of vapes each month, thanks to an early investment in an automatic vape filling machine
If you’re on the cusp of deciding, can I scale with traditional tabletop systems, or should I invest in automation? This is one cannabis brand’s story you’ll want to hear. Keep reading to learn how Vape-Jet helps Jersey Smooth scale production while maintaining flexible, efficient operations.
Meet Jersey Smooth
Jersey Smooth began as a small-craft operation in Ewing, New Jersey. The brand was founded to bring consistently exceptional vape products to market. To do so, the founders have aligned themselves with strong industry partners to source high-quality materials for premium natural terpenes and also use a production process they call “the Smooth Flow Path.”
The process incorporates numerous techniques and equipment to produce the most terpene-rich extracts as efficiently as possible, offering consumers access to high-quality material and maximizing their margins.
Together, the strategies have helped the locally family-owned company grow to be one of the most innovative, science-driven, and research-focused companies in the state.
Running a Small Cannabis Vape Operation With a Lean Team
But before it became one of the most advanced operations in the state, Jersey Smooth ran with a lean team. For approximately 7-8 months, a small team of three including the owner and his wife were filling, packaging, and delivering the entire operation off of just four stainless steel tables.
They attribute their rapid rise in success to investing in automation and a vape cart-filling machine from the start, especially one that helped multiply productivity, rather than systems that require additional or ongoing labor.
“What was so wonderful about us being so small and having a fully automatic Vape-Jet was that while the vapes were filling, we were doing calls, emails, you know, packaging, and other things that we could press go and walk away for 4 minutes while it was filling, or 3 minutes,” explains Aslan Zadeh, Founder and CEO at Jersey Smooth.
The Hidden Cost of Manual Vape Cartridge Filling
By adding automation from the start, as Aslan mentioned, the small operation was able to multitask through this important growth period. The team could seamlessly fill carts while managing packaging and sales by handling phone calls, emails, and more.
In the end, it wasn’t just about the cost of labor they’d have to pay but about hidden costs like lost flexibility, reduced throughput, and precious time that need to be considered when evaluating automation.
Why Jersey Smooth Looked Beyond Traditional Tabletop Filling Systems
Seeing others operate in the space and state, using smaller machines or manual filling, the pain points and the clear demand for automation were obvious to the founders of Jersey Smooth. What they saw was:
- Observable bottlenecks
- Labor-heavy workflows
- Constant supervision
So, the decision to begin their operations with automation was simple from the start. They began with just a scale, a bead bath, a hot plate stirrer, and the Vape-Jet automated vape-filling system, taking it slowly at first and gaining momentum in production as sales grew.
“Soon, we were doing $500k/month in vape sales while the machine only ran 5–6 days/month. That was the point that I knew we made the right decision,” Aslan shares.
Implementing an Automated Vape Filling System
By implementing an automated vape-filling system from the start, Jersey Smooth avoided the traditional pain points of manual filling and the associated hidden costs through improving workflow efficiency, creating more consistent production, and allowing its small team to scale more efficiently.
Let’s break down more on each next.
Improving Workflow Efficiency
As Aslan’s example shows, it’s not just about handling important phone calls or emails that automatic vape filling machines give you time back to handle. It’s the overall workflow efficiency that they help improve.
Machine-enabled asynchronous work allows small teams to multitask during fills, reducing the downtime between operation tasks. As a machine is filling, your team can be capping, packaging, labeling, or delivering, getting more done with fewer hands and time.
Creating More Consistent Production
Automated vape cartridge filling machines also support more consistent production, a key component of getting repeat orders and nurturing customer loyalty.
By selecting a machine like Vape-Jet, with a proven repeatability rate and its configuration profiles for SKU settings, Jersey Smooth gained the ability to seamlessly fill one type of vape cartridge across many types, with the confidence that comes from accuracy and consistency.
Maximizing Uptime with Advanced Support
When relying on equipment and automation, support responsiveness matters as much as machine performance to maximize uptime. During installation and inspection, Jersey Smooth saw just how quickly Vape-Jet support works when an issue came up.
“We plug it in, we turn it on, it’s not working. So, immediately, we called Vape-Jet. We were on the phone, they diagnosed it, and found that it’s one cable that’s in the back, and they immediately overnighted it,” Aslan recalls.
With advanced support, the Vape-Jet tech team can access the machine and its operating system remotely to troubleshoot issues quickly, getting operations back on track and moving before delays occur.
Or, even, helping clients with important inspections for licensing. Like Vape-Jet’s team did, swooping in to save the day for Jersey Smooth when inspectors showed up and the machinery wasn’t operating yet.
Quick thinking by Aslan and a quick phone call enabled Vape-Jet technicians to remotely add an image of the normal operating screen. By doing so, they satisfied the inspector’s needs and passed the inspection again without delay.
“What’s really important is how the company backs it up. That support is really where I saw the value,” Aslan continues.
Allowing a Small Team to Scale More Efficiently
With higher volumes, improved efficiency, more time on your hands, and consistent production, it’s easy to see how small teams can scale more efficiently with automated vape filling machines.
For Jersey Smooth, the initial team scaled revenue substantially without large labor expansion. Meaning, automation supported growth before major hiring.
Despite the system capacity exceeding early production needs, the Vape-Jets’ efficiency gave their team the internal systems they needed before they grew, stabilizing operational foundations for rapid success.
How Automation Changed Daily Operations
For Aslan and Jersey Smooth, automation changed the game in daily operations. They were able to evolve from large single-day production runs to more flexible batching, which helped operations become smoother and less stressful.
Today, the brand easily produces 1,200–7,000 vape carts per shift or day. Beyond its operational efficiency and volume, the team applauds Vape-Jet for how naturally it integrated into day-to-day operations and for the support and service the company offers.
Why More Cannabis Brands Are Investing in Vape Cartridge Filling Machines
In the ever-evolving cannabis industry, automation is no longer just for MSOs. More and more brands and small craft producers are investing in vape cartridge filling machines than ever before. Why? Because:
- Cannabis margins are tightening
- Lean teams need to produce more without increasing labor costs
- Manual filling can create bottlenecks as demand grows
- Automated vape filling systems help improve production speed and consistency
- Operators can multitask instead of being tied to a filling station all day
- Consistent fill accuracy helps support product quality and customer experience
- Faster production helps brands stay competitive in maturing markets
- Scalable equipment allows brands to grow without constantly rebuilding operations
- Reliable automation can reduce downtime and improve day-to-day efficiency
Final Thoughts
With such early success, Jersey Smooth is now expanding its operations by exploring new hardware and adding pre-rolls and rosin SKUs.
So, even though you might have begun this article wondering, “Is now the right time to automate? After hearing Jersey Smooth’s path to success, you may now be wondering, “Why didn’t I automate sooner?”
Fortunately, it’s never too late. Investing in automation, no matter which stage of growth you are in, helps reduce labor strain, create consistent production, and improve overall efficiency.
Just as Vape-Jet helped a small team achieve major production volumes, they can help your team achieve efficiency with the support and service the industry demands. “The VapeJet helped us do so much with so little. It’s worth the spend,”Aslan concludes.
Get in touch with the Vape-Jet crew to help your operations take flight.