Diversification of the Municipal Laboratory
Diversification of the Municipal Laboratory
By: Ron Kailey Jr., CEO
Tribal Software
Since the early 1990’s we in the environmental lab industry have seen many changes in the laboratory operation. The huge contract laboratories have combined, absorbed or just plain disappeared. Midsize labs became giants or also vanished with the environmental dollars. The small laboratories have been under the watchful eye of government, big brother, and anyone else that pays the bills.
Some non-lab personnel might even believe, with the vanishing dollars so goes the importance of the analytical analysis.
Over the past 7 years the author has been involved in the design, development and startup of three municipal laboratories. The author has over 23 years of laboratory experience and currently manages an environmental laboratory in Wyoming. He has authored two other articles, “A Laboratory Data Management System,” that was published in American Environmental Laboratory, six/96 and “Mini LIMS for Small Labs” in Environmental Testing & Analysis, nine/96.
With new Federal legislation including the Surface Water Treatment Rule, Sludge Regulations, Industrial Pretreatment regulation, Collection Byproducts Rulings and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act have placed increased testing burdens on the municipalities. This combined with ever-increasing process control for Water Treatment Plants (WTP) and Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP), municipalities are forced to constantly upgrade or expand their lab resources.
Some laboratories will out-source more analyses to the large contract labs. The labs that need the result information returned in any timely manner will be forced to build up or diversify.
Another approach to saving the American small lab comes in the form of diversification. This diversification can be used until labs can build up, contract out or to avoid such collaboration. We will now look at different ways to diversify a lab.
Many Plant managers are finding out what lab personnel have known for years… “The I.C.P., G.C. or even the pH meter doesn’t know the difference between a water sample and a wastewater sample”. Armed with this information many engineers and facility specialists are combining those Water/Wastewater laboratory duties as one approach to this dilemma.
This type of diversification can come in the form of trading work out with the other labs in the community or even 100’s of miles apart. Many labs that I have visited in the Front Range often have policies in place that allow them to do contract testing for other less fortunate labs.
Laboratories can also diversify internally. Internal diversification is an excellent approach to do more in-house analysis for less money and utilize the exciting resources that are available in the laboratory.
By utilizing the existing equipment and combining that equipment with computer control and automation, we have done just that. This not only allows more testing for the dollar but also assures the need for the existing personnel and repels layoffs, cutbacks and lab closures.
Lets now look at a couple examples of the author’s internal diversification applications:
One wastewater lab started this diversification swing in 1992, when they took an approach to purchase a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). They purchased this LIMS not to fight off down sizing but to address the basic lab problems of data retrieval and sampling problems. Because of the amount of work for just two individuals, the last thing done was the paper work. Realizing the whole idea behind the analyses was the result or “Paper work” they had to get a handle on the lab reporting resources. They were also experiencing problems with missing paper work or incomplete reports, methodology differences, audit trail requirements, good Quality Control practices, and the lost or expired sample. This small lab could not keep up the amount of paper work that the lab was generating. The solution was to purchase a computer controlled system.
Some of the typical small laboratory needs include:
Ø No system administrators or limited access to IT people.
Ø Budgets are much smaller than in larger labs.
Ø Hardware resources are much more limited (older hardware systems).
Ø Most technicians have to multi task (sampler, equipment operator, lab administrator duties).
Ø Because of multi tasking they need a system that is very user friendly.
Ø Need the ability to address lab growth as it occurs in real time.
Ø Need the ability to make custom changes to their own system.
Ø Tools must be included with the system for any in-house system changes.
Ø Expandable to a larger system as lab grows or needs change such as instrument interfacing.
Purchasing a LIMS was not as easy as it sounded. Because of the size (2 person) of the lab, as well as the lack of funds (<$11,000.), they could not find any decent systems available for their applications. This led us to pursue and develop a LIMS system. The author performed several months of research on the lab needs and then searched high and low for a competent database developer. With the author as the designer and a contract programmer as the developer, they collaborated to make one of the small labs most important and powerful tools.
This un-holy collaboration, and innovative thought process eventually established the birth of a new software company. This company has grown to have multiple products from MS Access, SQL-Server and an Oracle based system. Now the small, medium and large labs have more choices than ever before. The company’s latest LIMS product, the TribalÔ LDMS v8.3r (Tribal Software Inc. 1740H Dell Range Blvd. #402 Cheyenne, WY 82009) is also available on a Citrix© platform (web based).
Some of the LIMS system features are:
Ø Truly open-ended (100% of the code is accessible) laboratory system
Ø Water Environmental Federation (WEF) Innovative Technology Award winner
Ø Developed by lab people for lab people
Ø Alternative to the high dollar systems
Ø Complete Bar-coding throughout the system
Ø Expandability for GIS, Plant Operations and PDA handheld unit.
Ø Multi-Level user security
Ø On-site support via phone connection or web. On-Line Training (web connection) using a virtual desktop
Ø Comprehensive laboratory data management from Sample entry to Report generation
Ø Support for maintenance, training, customization, and complete computer system and supplies
The TribalÔ system saves hundreds of hours per year in complete lab management, including data acquisition, complete reporting capabilities, tracking resources in the lab (MSDS, chemical inventory, equipment maintenance and calibration etc.), sample management, Quality Control, document management and conforming to the government regulations. The system also has areas for special tools, reference areas and laboratory accounting applications (Invoicing, Testing dollars, Equipment justification, etc.)
The author then took this same innovative approach (Lab diversification) and applied it to other areas of the lab. The next example comes in the form of diversifying a lab instrument.
The Gas Chromatograph (GC) PE Autosystem© (Perkin-Elmer® 45 Williams St. Wellesley, MA 02481) was used to analyze for Trihalomethanes (THM’s) using an electron capture detector (ECD). Eventually the powers that be, wanted to add Volatile organic compounds using a Hall (ELCD) detector and photoionization detector (PID). Because the autosystem is only a two-detector system the lab had to look at buying an additional instrument. To avoid this and diversify, the author researched the instrument and talked to the Perkin-Elmer service rep and discovered a possible solution.
The Autosystem only allows for two detectors but the detector block, where the detectors are mounted, has three slots. The system controls will allow for three detectors but the electronic boards will not allow it. So we had the PE service tech makeup a board that could be swapped in and easily plugged into the new detector as needed. We then stored procedures for Purge and Trap injection for the Volatiles and manual injection for the THM’s. The system also allowed us to add a separate column and attach it to a separate injector. Thus we were able to establish two different procedures using separate injectors, columns and detectors. The software allowed multiple methods and the controls allowed multiple control registrations. Users only had to swap the electronics board when needed and then select the appropriate method.
Some of the benefits for changing the GC system features are:
Ø Multi tasking between runs.
Ø Dual channel, changed to a modified tri channel system.
Ø Allows users to know maintenance and calibrations on one system for two applications.
Ø Saved the lab over $70,000.00 dollars
Ø Very little down time between applications and the sample run.
Ø Continued access to worldwide Perkin-Elmer service and support team.
You can see by the examples of lab diversification that lab personnel are ready for the challenges of tomorrow and want to meet those challenges with the control and accountability of the modern lab. As non-lab management forces send your lab down a path of consolidation, closure or cutbacks, there are things you must do to direct those people on the best approach for the modern lab.
If you find your lab fading in the next few years, bring those innovative thoughts to the next laborator. The best labs will always listen to their people. From technician to lab rat, who else knows the workings of the laboratory? Only these lab representatives have the tools to convince the non-lab personnel into their corner, hopefully this article can be one of those tools.
