The European “rendez-vous” for the Laboratory Informatics industry took place last April at the Paperless Lab Academy®. The Optima team has just come back from the 9th European edition of PLA2022. It was fantastic to return to an in-person event and finally meet people face-to-face.
Throughout the congress, there was discussion about the digital management of data generated in the labs. A discussion that the Paperless Lab Academy® aims to stimulate with topics such as FAIR, cloud, data integrity, instrument integration, digital transformation strategy and change management, among others. It was also highlighted that the pandemic situation had an impact on most companies’ digital transformation projects, forcing them to review their strategy and priorities.
As a result, management has developed a strong interest in the management of laboratory resources and has realised that this process lacks an appropriate tool to support its complexity and provide more transparency.
The Pandemic has created a need for better visibility in the lab resource management field
Along with the digitalisation projects of laboratory and quality processes, typically handled with LIMS, LES or ELN, a series of questions has arisen stronger than ever:
- How efficient is the laboratory?
- How much time and resources are invested to the laboratory tasks planning?
- How much are the instruments allocated?
- When will we absorb the backlog created?
- How many additional projects can the lab handle?
- Where should we invest to increase productivity?
- Where should we focus to improve efficiency?
A series of questions aimed at better understanding better the efficiency and productivity of the laboratory. In short, questions to get a clearer picture of today’s staffing levels and a projection on tomorrow’s possible scenarios
Get a better view on your laboratory efficiency
A lab resource management tool like Optima LRMS is becoming increasingly important today to find answers to these questions.
Laboratory scheduling is a process that has mainly been solved through numerous team meetings and Excel spreadsheets, which has come under pressure during the pandemic and lockdown periods. The risks for companies working mainly with paper-based processes have increased dramatically during the pandemic.
At this point, the lack of agility and visibility of the efficiency and quality of the services they provide to their clients became apparent to management.
A laboratory resources management system allows you to coordinate resources (staff and instruments) to execute the list of tasks required for a specific customer order, for a specific project or for a pure quality control routine.
Key elements for Efficiency in lab resource management: Automation and Key Performance indicators.
Optima provides two main elements to support the laboratory resource management.
- The automatic scheduling of the request versus specific parameters
- Reporting from every piece of information stored in its Database
Scheduling is not just about adjusting people’s agendas and checking the availability of instruments. Those who are responsible for it know that it requires checking a variety of parameters. If you are fortunate enough to benefit from other systems such as training management systems, instrument calibration and maintenance management systems, if not by matching a series of Excel files on customer order requests, priority lists, training schedules for new staff, staff competencies, status of operational instruments status, sick leave, and so on.
Reporting is not just about checking which tasks have been completed and which are delayed. If you use Optima, the amount of information stored can provide powerful insights to answering the above questions.
Set the right KPIs and generate the reports required for your business!
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