Screening


Conclusions


One of the most interesting findings of the survey is the wide variation in reliability and downtime of the various systems reported or respondent labs. Overall the survey findings appear to corroborate the view that HTS systems have associated with them a high degree of downtime and a significant proportion can be attributed to reliability issues. Given the importance of HTS as the main source of new leads for the pharma industry, it is perhaps surprising how little attention this downtime gets. More critically, few survey respondents appear to have given much thought to the impact of reliabil- ity of their HTS systems on their company’s research enterprise as a whole and only minimal attempts have been made to assign an economic value to the downtime associated with one of these HTS systems.


Figure 22:Wako’s gripper never drops a plate – the main ‘v cut’ fingers hold the plate from the sides and below while the black rear fingers hold the plate from behind and below


There are a number of factors that contribute to poor integrated system reliability. Four of the main failure points on systems are automated tissue cul- ture incubators, lid removal and replacement, dropped plates and poor software integration. Complicated automated tissue culture incubator designs lead to high failure rates. Wako’s (www.wakousa.com/automation) patented auto- mated incubator design is reliable because of its simple design, relying on the main system arm to reach inside and grab plates. Wako’s incubator has less moving parts and electronics compared to any other on the market. Lid removal and replacement is another failure point. Wako again has solved this problem by implementing a simple design. Wako lids have ‘wings’. When a plate is lowered over a Wako static lid removal station the ‘wings’ are caught allowing the lid to sit on the station while the robot hand moves away with the plate. Most robot grippers hold a plate using two fingers with rubber or pins that apply pressure to either side of the plate. Dust accumulation, DMSO spills and other factors lead to dropped plates. Wako’s patented grippers hold the plates from underneath and on three sides making dropped plates virtually impossible. Finally, buggy software with poor com- munication protocols can cause a system to stop for seemingly no reason. These are the most annoy- ing issues faced with an integrated system, often leading to finger pointing between manufacturers. Wako prides itself on software robustness and is happy to provide customer references (Figure 22).


76


In contrast, system integrators are actively focused on delivering reliability and have collec- tively identified/implemented many improvements to their processes and systems over recent years to minimise downtime. Some of the principal devel- opments adopted by system integrators to enhance reliability include (but are not limited to) the fol- lowing: 1) improvements to scheduling software functionality, particularly with respect to error- handling capabilities, deadlock avoidance and fault recovery; 2) more extensive component selec- tion, plus greater testing and validation of all third party instrumentation; 3) designing and building more of their own lines of components and peripheral devices; 4) more rigorous testing of a system, as close as possible to the final environ- ment/application, prior to shipment; 5) improving gripper or nest design to ensure accurate and proper placement of labware; 6) redesign of lab- ware to improve/better accommodate automate handling; 7) development and supply of specific labware manufactured to higher tolerances; 8) deployment of a wider variety of strategies for remote monitoring; 9) increased use of factory automation methodologies such as failure mode analysis, 3D modelling and software simulation packages to identify potential sources of error; and 10) greater emphasis on operator training and on-site support. Readers should be aware that not all these developments have been adopted by every system integrator. To the outsider there does, however, appear to be a disparity between what system integrators believe they have delivered with their systems ver- sus what those end-users surveyed have actually achieved with respect to system reliability. Bridging this reliability gap requires both parties to work


Drug Discovery World Winter 2010/11


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