As well as running a workshop on integration (Minimise the Pain of Integrating ELNs and LIMS into your Paperless Informatics and Data Management Systems) as part of the technical programme at the recent SmartLabs Exchange, Joe Liscouski (Director, Institute for Laboratory Automation) also ran a half day session entitled ‘Manager’s Guide to Lab Automation & Technology Management’. The course served as an overview to the educational programme run by the Institute for Laboratory Automation, a non-profit organisation that specialises in promoting better understanding and strategic deployment of automation in the laboratory.
The course presented at SmartLabs Exchange outlined a systemic approach to automation, tracing its evolution from the days when quantitative chromatography was based on cutting out peaks and weighing them, to current requirements for integrating disparate laboratory instruments, systems and robotics into a unified laboratory ‘solution’. Considerable emphasis was placed on process and workflow understanding, the choice of technology infrastructure and the role that systems such as LIMS and ELNs can play in facilitating integration. From a manager’s perspective, the introduction of laboratory automation is equivalent to introducing a small scale ‘scientific manufacturing’ operation and therefore warrants appropriate policies and practices. Good planning plays a critical role in the deployment of laboratory automation, based on well-defined goals and business justification.
The course provided an excellent overview of strategic approach to laboratory automation. Full details of the public course schedule offered by the Institute for Laboratory Automation can be found here.
