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Many, if not all Laboratory Managers are now
under increased pressure to provide better levels of service to those they
serve. Which means significant improvements to the operational performance
of their analytical laboratories. However, the pressure for increased
service performance does not necessarily mean additional resources will be
made available to Laboratory Managers with which to achieve these
improvements.
Laboratory costs are more often rigorously
scrutinized, resource levels and investment have to be fought for and
business-justified. And of course, analytical standards must be maintained.
The Laboratory Manager’s dilemma will include some or all of these issues:
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analysis completion dates (deadlines) need to
be met dependably;
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laboratory lead times are viewed as too long;
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lumpy incoming workloads, varying mix of
product-types, priorities changing;
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increased workloads without increased
resources or even resource reductions;
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the availability of laboratory resources
cannot be counted on; equipment fails or needs maintenance,
staff take holidays and sick leave!
So where are the answers to the performance
challenge? Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) plays its role
in managing analytical data, but in its current form does it offer the tools
for managing the laboratory’s operational performance to best effect?
For a Manager facing such complex, conflicting
demands there may be a gap in their toolkit. For instance, useful tools
would quickly and systematically enable a Laboratory Manager to review
expected incoming workloads in conjunction with work already underway within
the laboratory in order to organise the flow of work, its sequencing, and
the allocation of resources to meet required priorities and service levels.
The laboratory management tools would allow the Manager to
plan workloads and regularly
publish laboratory output schedules with a high level of confidence in the
reliability of the timetable, and would allow rapid re-planning as
circumstance change – as they will in the real world. This paper will
discuss the experience of applying these ideas, with existing system
investments, and how a laboratory scheduling system resulted in a practical solution to the challenge of
improving laboratory performance.
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Presented by Chris Dale (btt) at the Royal Society of Chemistry AAMG e-Lab
conference June 2003 in London and the LIMS Conference September 2004
Barcelona, Spain.
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Analytical Laboratory Management
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