Working Smarter: The Critical Need for LIMS and Automation in Today’s Modern Laboratory

Today’s modern laboratory faces many internal and external challenges. The organization’s ability to proactively address these challenges will determine if the outcome will be negative consequences that result in lower lab productivity, higher operational costs, or regulatory compliance sanctions. This session will provide valuable guidance on how to make smart use of LIMS and laboratory automation to eliminate many of these common challenges faced on a daily basis. Within the laboratory, generating and reporting accurate test results efficiently and in a timely fashion is an ongoing issue. At the same time, operational costs continue to rise, putting budget pressures on the organization and making it difficult to compensate talented laboratory professionals. One challenge faced by a growing number of organizations is not being able to adequately staff the laboratory due to a combination of attrition and losing job candidates to higher paying offers. The laboratory also faces external challenges, ranging from meeting governmental and industry compliance requirements to providing accurate and timely reporting to its customers. The implications of not addressing these challenges can be devastating and result in possible loss of required certification/accreditation, fines, and damage to the laboratory’s reputation. This session will focus on the critical role that lab automation, including a laboratory information management system (LIMS), can play in addressing these internal and external challenges. Presentation topics will include: -Lab Economics: The Cost of Not Being Automated -Why a LIMS is a Necessity: The Perspective of an Environmental Lab Manager -LIMS – Premise or Cloud Deployment: Which is Right for My Laboratory? -Making Smart Use of Mobile Technology in the Laboratory -Using IoT Automation to Eliminate Environmental Monitoring Inefficiencies -LIMS: Your Secret Weapon to Regulatory Compliance