For a LIMS implementation to be most effective, it is critical for quality leaders to define the business benefits and achieve visibility, input and buy-in with the business stakeholders early in the process. This will have significant consequences in the priorities, scope and execution of the project and result in a greater business impact. A LIMS can impact not only the lab performance but more significantly the quality objectives of the entire enterprise. The following categories should be reviewed broadly to surface these issues. The benefits in any one category will vary substantially among laboratories as driven by many factors. For example, in some manufacturing QC laboratories, the indirect tangible benefit of earlier detection and corrections of process drift will dwarf other benefits.
Direct Tangible Benefits
Direct tangible benefits are those that can be measured using laboratory performance metrics over time.
Benefits
- Increased throughput – A LIMS improves throughput. For labs that are capacity bound or anticipating increased demand, BlazeLIMS compares favorably with adding costly personnel, equipment or lab space. Throughput gains of 10-20% are not unusual but can vary widely depending upon a particular lab environment.
How Accomplished
- Automate manual tasks
- Eliminate lags requiring human intervention,
- Enhances equipment utilization
- Reduces errors and rework
- Faster turnaround – A LIMS improves the turnaround for results. Where quality processes are time sensitive, faster turnaround provides earlier detection and correction of drift, with the potential for costly waste reduction. Where customers value fast results, LIMS will contribute to improved sales and customer satisfaction.
- Automates and speeds manual tasks
- Provides backlog management and notifications to reduce manual dead time.
- Reduces “lost” samples by sample tracking and monitoring.
- Provides immediate deliveyr of results in most usable form.
- Labor savings – A LIMS increases productivity and reduces unit labor costs. As
- Automate tedious and time consuming manual tasks.
- Labor savings, reduced errors, delays and rework, faster turnaround, improved throughput, and better utilization of instrument, reagent and human resources via automation of repetitive tasks and integration of all related information into the workflow.
- Faster problem solving, assured data integrity and regulatory compliance, enhanced communications, continuous improvement features, shared accessible information, managed and documented methods and processes, all via built-in capability.
- Detect process or measurement drift or off-spec quality sooner, avoid product waste and laboratory rework, and release product faster, via lab performance improvements and by delivering results promptly directly to end users in real time. These benefits can far exceed lab operational savings and should be a prime focus of LIMS goals.
- Provide a managed information, process, and data foundation for continuity and flexibility in the face of change such as increased regulation, new risks and threats, employee turnover, changing products, new customers, expansion of demand, etc.
- Free up staff from labor intensive tasks to focus on knowledge based activity with much higher value.