Sample Management Software for Laboratories

Improved Storage Space Efficiency

Monitoring sample storage visually or manually can be complicated. Knowing a lab’s storage availability and what is currently stored in the lab is difficult to achieve with spreadsheets, notes, and manually running the numbers. Sample management software automates the process, running storage reports regularly to keep labs operating at peak efficiency.

Reducing Wasted Storage Space

Labs often waste storage space on old stocks from the previous project because of poor inventory management. Maintaining these samples costs labs money with virtually no benefit. One of the biggest culprits of wasted space is bad labeling. A sample management system improves the labeling process by tracking items, expiration dates, and users. It also allows labs to rationalize materials and simplify housekeeping.

Preventing Fragmentation

Accurately recording the updated position of samples is complicated, especially when moving samples to defragment the stores and consolidate boxes. It also puts labs at risk of making errors during testing, compromising the results. It is even more difficult, considering how lab scientists spread samples throughout the facility into several separate freezers, shelves, free space, and other areas.

Lab managers can track these samples more efficiently with sample management software. Sample management software provides tools to incorporate barcode tracking on all samples to simplify the management process and avoid errors. The best software helps to prevent fragmentation by suggesting open spaces for placing new tubes as they become available, keeping track of samples right down to their X-Y location in a box.

Tracking Barcodes

Manually tracking samples causes frustration and increases the risk of errors. Scientists can have difficulty reading labels, especially when taking a frost-covered sample out of freezer storage. Barcoding is much more accurate than labeling and virtually error-proof. The benefits of a barcoding sample management system include:

• Clear identification of any sample
• Improved accuracy
• Affordable barcoding 
• Minimized time spent writing on tubes and plates
• Easy printing and application of labels with the correct information

Sample management software should give you tools to manage barcoded labware efficiently and to manage existing non-barcoded stock. Items to consider when choosing a sample tracking system that utilizes barcoding include:

• Automated barcode management
• Pre-barcoded labware
• Prevents barcode duplication
• Simplified design and label printing 
• A barcode scan that displays detailed information concerning a single sample

Increased Productivity

Increased productivity of resources is a significant benefit and is visible in nearly every aspect of the LIMS. This is especially true if you are currently using paper or Excel spreadsheets.

In our recent survey, over 100 customer respondents stated they saw an average 50%-70% increase in productivity throughout the lab. Increased productivity is achieved through minor improvements, such as implementing barcoding to reduce the time it takes to enter data. It’s also achieved through significant improvements, such as reducing the time to prepare for an audit from weeks to hours.

Every feature listed on our “Key Capabilities” above previously has some opportunity for increased productivity, helping you do more with less time and fewer costs.

Improved Data Quality and Security

Labs generate and manage large amounts of data. For example, a single sample may require multiple analyses. Each analysis may test for multiple analytes. This pattern can result in hundreds of results or other data points that must be entered into the system. However, hundreds or thousands of data elements can be automatically loaded into the system through a simple integration with an instrument. Faster and more accurate data entry (one that eliminates “user error”) allows for faster decision-making.

Data security is paramount to any successful LIMS software. Additional security protocols guarantee you are meeting or exceeding industry regulatory compliance (such as 21 CFR Part 11 and ISO 17025, among others)  in the form of an “Audit Trail” that tracks all data changes.

The LABWORKS LIMS Audit Trail tracks:

• who entered or changed the data
• when the data was entered or edited
• why the data was changed

It also retains the data history so users can see how data values changed over time and why.

Reduced Employee Attrition and Greater Employee Job Satisfaction

When employees are more productive and can reduce repetitive or remedial tasks, they feel more accomplished and find more satisfaction at work.

A LIMS can also help when there is turnover in a lab by reducing the time required to onboard a new employee. Having the data end-to-end and increasing efficiencies through automation allows employees to learn job functions more quickly while improving cross-collaboration and communication.

Reduced Costs

Overall increased efficiency has direct cost savings. Larger profit margins can be achieved if costs can be simultaneously maintained or even decreased.

One of the functional LIMS items that have the most significant impact in reducing costs but is rarely discussed as part of a LIMS is lab sample inventory tracking and management. Inventory management tracks inventory volumes, but it also tracks vendors and the quality of materials. It can trigger notifications when inventory items are about to expire and when they need to be reordered. As tests are performed, inventory is automatically decremented, giving a real-time inventory level view. This drastically reduces waste and helps to ensure expired items are not used and that inventory is ordered ahead of time to avoid outages of materials. Inventory management is also a large contributor to employee satisfaction and overall efficiency. Having the capability to track sample results back to inventory reagents is also key to achieving compliance and certification.

Increased Revenue

A LIMS can cause a direct increase in revenue, especially with labs that charge for their services. If a lab can increase its throughput, it will increase revenue. For many industries, the LIMS is a key part of the manufacturing process or a key tool in the R&D process, both of which drive revenue. Being able to identify trends more quickly, good or bad, can save revenue against errors in the manufacturing process identify opportunities based on test results.

Speed to market is critical, and in R&D labs, greater collaboration and communication between the R&D team and the lab are critical. Many labs in many different industries are required to meet very strict regulations to function. Having a LIMS in place helps to ensure that regulations are consistently being met and that the lab can easily and efficiently demonstrate compliance when audited. In this case, the LIMS helps protect revenue by helping to maintain operations.

Track Sample Quantities

A typical problem in laboratories is forgetting to update the remaining sample amount after a quantity has been removed from a tube. If the amount of a sample isn’t correctly recorded and tracked, labs may not have the sufficient amount needed in their inventory. This can also cause errors, compromising the scientific test. Sample management software keeps track of sample quantities by automatically reducing amounts after lab scientists create a new tube from an existing one.

Streamlining Unit Language

Along with tracking amounts, sample management software streamlines units. For instance, the concentration units being recorded when using biological substances will depend on the material type (i.e., mg/mL, cells/mL, mM, OD). To complicate matters further, users may express concentration in a variety of different ways than their counterparts. Unless labs implement a controlled vocabulary of concentration units, a manual tracking system can be difficult for users to interpret, further complicating the sample testing process.

Correctly Determining Storage Space Size

Laboratory samples can be stored in a wide variety of containers, including different brands and sizes of tubes, multi-well plates, flasks, blocks, and microscope slides. When managing a sample inventory, lab managers must track key information such as sample ID, volume, and concentration. They must also determine the type of vessel needed to store the sample.

Rather than opening many stores to search for appropriate free space for available sample containers, sample tracking software automatically assigns space for each item. For example, lab managers may arrange fridges, freezers, and other storage spaces in various ways. However, researchers may not know how each store is arranged and how shelves are allocated before opening a storage area. The search for available space wastes time and causes scientists to open and close freezer doors unnecessarily.

Good sample management software will simplify the decision process by accurately representing lab storage layouts to include information on physically storing sample types. The software will then guide lab managers to the space’s location and which type of container to use.

Other benefits of using inventory tracking software include:

• Understanding your storage space usage and different types of storage within the lab
• Creating simplified reports that generate tracking metrics
• Standardizing consumables for consistent use of protocols, racks, and storage containers and even automation
• Providing accurate measurement to aid in bulk purchase savings
• Leveraging time-saving devices such as 2D barcode rack scanners
• Allowing for further automation services

Manage Expiration and Review Dates

One of the hardest aspects of sample management for a laboratory is managing expiration or retention dates. There are several reasons why sample management may be associated with an expiration or review date, including:

• Labs must re-qualify chemicals to ensure their behavior is within expected limits
• Certain samples must be within the legal retention period (i.e., time-limited consents for human-derived materials)
• Samples may lose viability after a period of storage
• There may be a service level agreement in place to retain customer samples for a set period, after which they will be archived, returned, or destroyed
• Managing sample life helps labs avoid using deteriorated, outdated, or no longer authorized samples.
• Laboratories must maintain expiration dates to comply with good laboratory practice

Tracking all sample life manually is a significant undertaking, while installing an automated sample management system provides labs the tools needed to track expiration and retention dates. For example, labs can quickly determine which samples have expired or are close to their expiration date, then list their locations to make it easy to dispose of them.

On the other hand, labs can re-qualify reagents following Quality Control guidelines by batching materials for editing and set a new requalification date. In any case, the sample tracking system will fully record each step taken along the audit trail for a detailed test history.

Sample management software also helps prevent the accidental use of an expired substance by clearly displaying a warning when pulling the sample from its storage container.

Usability

Lab sample management software should simplify your data management system, not complicate it. Whether you are running QA/QC operations that support manufacturing, an R&D lab, an analytic lab for research, or in another industry, sample management software should make your laboratory’s workflow easy.

For instance, implementing LIMS software in a study laboratory can include testing portals for researchers at different locations. This factor alone allows labs to understand all the complexities introduced in the study fully.

Flexibility

Your LIMS software should have all the capabilities needed to eradicate inconsistent information produced from manual capture and calculations, standardize and integrate laboratory procedures and workflows. It should also be flexible enough to streamline across all lab interfaces.

Standard LIMS software produces results as quickly as possible to simplify administration and work in a single unified database. It would help if you utilized software that also provides flexibility on top of its specific functionalities. Your new LIMS system should demonstrate the following proven capabilities:

• Customizable and Compatible with Your Current Systems
• LIMS software may be available on cloud-based, hosted, or on-premise architecture.
• Check to see if the system can be automated, self-serve, or integrated, depending on the needs of your laboratory.

These capabilities will allow you the customization and flexibility needed to get the most out of your information management system.

Configurable Models

While most lab sample management systems have similar functions and capabilities, different solutions can vary greatly in configuration capabilities. Some sample management software features a broad range of functions that feature standard integrations into the system that you can use right after installing. Other systems require you to install different device tools for complete configuration capabilities. 

When choosing laboratory management software, consider how it will configure into your workflow. If the system provides the functions, you need to get the most out of your data management system. A modern software system will support greater lab agility and workflow generation without needing additional help from a provider.

Labworks’ range of LIMS software includes feature-rich systems that easily implement and align with your lab and business processes without further customizations. This type of software provides you with all the tools you need to increase functionality and reduce your overall ownership cost.