Agritech laboratories can handle large numbers of samples across a wide range of testing activities, from soil and crop analysis to seed testing and environmental monitoring. As sample volumes increase, laboratories need to maintain accurate results and reliable turnaround times while making effective use of available staff and equipment.
This can become difficult where laboratory processes rely heavily on manual administration.
Sample registration, worksheet preparation, instrument data entry, calculations, reporting and approval may each require relatively little time individually. However, when these tasks are repeated across hundreds or thousands of samples, they can account for a significant proportion of the working day.
A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) can help laboratories manage these processes more efficiently by bringing sample information, workflows, analytical data and reporting together within a single system.
Sample registration and allocation
Efficient sample processing starts when a sample enters the laboratory. Samples may arrive from different customers, farms, sites, trials or research projects, with each requiring associated information to be recorded. Where this information is entered manually into spreadsheets or separate systems, registration can become time-consuming and may introduce transcription errors or incomplete records.
A LIMS can provide configurable sample registration workflows that define the information required for different sample and test types. Mandatory fields and data validation can help ensure the necessary information is recorded before the sample progresses further through the laboratory.
Once registered, samples can also be allocated to the appropriate tests, analysts, departments or work queues. This is particularly useful where laboratories handle varying sample volumes. Having a current view of outstanding work can help laboratory managers identify where workloads are increasing and allocate resources accordingly, rather than discovering a backlog after turnaround times have already been affected.
Managing laboratory work
Preparing work for analysis can involve a considerable amount of administration. Samples need to be grouped appropriately, tests assigned and worksheets or worklists prepared. If these activities are managed manually, laboratory staff may spend valuable time organising work before analysis can begin.
A LIMS can use predefined rules to help automate this process. Worklists can be generated according to the laboratory’s own requirements, allowing samples to be organised consistently and presented to analysts with the information required to carry out the work.
This can also give laboratory managers greater visibility of work in progress. Instead of relying on individual spreadsheets, paper records or updates from different members of staff, information about samples and testing activity is held centrally. Managers can therefore review outstanding work, sample status and workload distribution from within the system.
Connecting laboratory instruments
Another area to consider is the movement of data between laboratory instruments and other systems. Without integration, an analyst may need to enter sample information into an instrument and then transfer the resulting data back into a spreadsheet or laboratory system.
Apart from taking time, this introduces an additional opportunity for transcription errors.
Instrument integration can reduce this duplication. Depending on the instrument and laboratory workflow, sample and test information can be transferred from the LIMS to the instrument, while analytical results can be returned directly to the corresponding sample record. This means analysts spend less time transferring information manually and reduces the risk of results being associated with the wrong sample or entered incorrectly.
Managing calculations and results
The completion of an analytical test does not necessarily mean that the laboratory’s work on the sample is complete. Results may require calculations, validation and review before they can be approved. Where spreadsheets are used for these activities, laboratories need to ensure formulas are correct, current versions are being used, and calculations are performed consistently by different members of staff.
A LIMS can automate calculations using predefined and validated methods. The same calculation can therefore be applied consistently whenever the relevant test is performed.
This removes the need for laboratory staff to recreate or manually apply formulas and helps reduce the possibility of accidental changes affecting the result. Automated calculations can be particularly valuable in high-volume laboratories, where even a small manual task becomes significant when repeated across many samples.
Result review and approval
Laboratories also need appropriate controls around the review and approval of analytical results. Depending on the laboratory, results may require technical review, quality checks or authorisation before they can be released. When these processes depend on emails, paper records or staff remembering to pass work to the next person, samples can remain in review queues unnecessarily.
Electronic workflows can provide a more structured approach. A LIMS can be configured with review, and approval stages appropriate to the laboratory’s procedures. Users can see which results require attention, while electronic records provide traceability of who reviewed or approved information and when. This helps the laboratory maintain appropriate quality controls without making the approval process unnecessarily cumbersome.
Generating laboratory reports
Preparing the final report can be another significant administrative task. If laboratory staff manually copy approved results into report templates, they must ensure the correct data is transferred, formatting is consistent and the appropriate version of the report is being used.
A LIMS can generate reports directly from approved laboratory data. Report templates can be configured to reflect the information required by the laboratory and its customers. Once the appropriate results have been reviewed and approved, the system can use those records to populate the report. This reduces manual document preparation and provides greater consistency across reports. More importantly, it allows laboratory staff to concentrate on reviewing the information rather than repeatedly assembling documents.
Identifying laboratory bottlenecks
Improving laboratory performance requires an understanding of where delays occur. This can be difficult when information is distributed across spreadsheets, paper records and individual systems. A laboratory may know that turnaround times are increasing without being able to identify precisely which part of the process is responsible.
Centralising workflow information provides greater visibility. Laboratory managers can use LIMS data to monitor areas such as sample turnaround times, outstanding testing, workloads, instrument activity and approval queues. This makes it easier to identify recurring bottlenecks and determine whether changes to processes or resources are having the intended effect.
Importantly, this information can also help laboratories distinguish between isolated problems and persistent workflow issues.
Supporting increasing sample volumes
Agritech laboratories may need to respond to seasonal peaks, new customers, additional testing services or general increases in sample volumes. If laboratory processes are heavily dependent on manual administration, an increase in testing can create a corresponding increase in paperwork and data entry. Eventually, administrative capacity can become a constraint on laboratory capacity.
Introducing automation does not remove the need for scientific expertise or appropriate quality controls. Instead, it can reduce the amount of repetitive administration surrounding those activities. By managing sample registration, laboratory workflows, instrument data, calculations, approvals and reporting within a connected system, laboratories can increase the number of samples they process without necessarily increasing administration at the same rate.
How a LIMS accelerates agritech lab performance
There is rarely a single process responsible for laboratory delays. More often, time is lost in relatively small amounts throughout the sample lifecycle: entering information, preparing work, transferring data, checking calculations, locating records and waiting for approvals.
Individually, these activities may not appear significant. Across a busy Agritech laboratory, however, their cumulative effect can have a substantial influence on turnaround times and staff workloads.
A LIMS provides an opportunity to review these processes as a connected workflow rather than a series of separate administrative tasks. By automating repetitive activities and making laboratory information easier to access, laboratories can spend less time managing the movement of data and more time on the scientific work itself.
