How a Regulated Lab Ended Up Owning the Code of a Commercial LIMS
A surprising number of labs today still use pen and paper to manage lab samples, analysis, and reporting. But for forward-looking labs, a laboratory information management system (LIMS) offers a way to work more effectively through standardized workflows, tests, and procedures.
That was the conclusion reached by the shareholders of an environmental contract lab. Recognizing that if they continued to rely solely on pen and paper, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with their competitors and forecasted workload, they decided to invest in a LIMS. Their goal was to reduce transcription times, simplify troubleshooting, and automate much of the lab’s data processing and record management.
One of the lab’s quality assurance (QA) chemists, who shared this story with me, said that the lab “had rooms dedicated to binders full of paper with QA/QC results.” It’s no wonder she was excited to help select a LIMS that would meet the lab’s needs. Although, I suspect she didn’t anticipate spending the next two years exploring various options.
