L IMS: Enhanc Ed fE aturE S
fIrSt-cLaSS functIonaLIty
Peter Boogaard assesses the ways in which LIMS vendors are responding to customer needs
L
IMS is a brilliant tool to manage predictable and repeatable planned sample, test and study workflows, and then store these datasets
efficiently and securely in a database. LIMS supports a systematic approach for the laboratory to acquiring, analysing, storing, and disseminating information related to products, stability studies and manufacturing processes. To minimise customisation effort and maximise the speed of the LIMS implementation, many vendors offer excellent commercial-off-the- shelf (COTS) software solutions to assure laboratory results are securely entered and maintained in the LIMS database. Recent new technology developments
to increase user adoption and lower the learning curve have been successfully adopted. Still, to get data out of LIMS requires, in many cases, more technical knowledge. Many LIMS systems support a variety of third-party reporting tools. Crystal Reports and the Microsoft office suite are still in many occasions the reporting tools of choice. In almost all cases, LIMS vendors offer a suite of standard report templates for standard Certificate of Analysis (CoA) and test reports, compliance, and Statistical Process Control (SPC). But what effort is needed to create reports for non-traditional LIMS users? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to create a standard ISA
6
95/88 compliant electronic batch record (EBR) or by law mandated annual product review reports? What about automated OOS (Out Of Spec) capabilities and support for the European REACH guidelines? We surveyed LIMS vendors, and asked them which out-of-the-box capabilities are available within their LIMS offerings.
data aggregation LabWare LIMS facilitates data aggregation in several ways. The standard product allows grouping of data to a variety of standard LIMS objects. Data retrieval and grouping tools include ‘data explorer’, an ad-hoc query tool providing authorised end users with an intuitive, graphical interface to compile LIMS queries based ‘user friendly’ views of the database. Advanced data aggregation can be achieved by adding customer specified ‘tags’ to LIMS objects. Siemens IT Unilab offers various
functions including: Searching and Filtering – in which data can be retrieved, displayed and aggregated based upon one or more ‘groupkeys’; Trending and Charting; Reporting - allowing the creation of any report or operational dashboard; and Manufacturing Intelligence – which allows the construction of real-time KPI dashboards. Thermo Fisher aggregates both calculated
Messaging LIMS
Service Orientated Architecture (SOA)
ISA88 & ISA95 Adoption for standards decreases costs The use of standards reduces cost between applications
and raw results. Through integration solutions, Integration Manager and Data Manager SDMS, scientists are able to view all the sample information in LIMS, regardless of its source. Starlims allows out-of-the-box
aggregation of data for both structured (LIMS data) and unstructured data (document and ELN data). Additionally, SOAP- and REST-based web services, through to protocol-based information sharing like OPC, HL7 and ASTM are supported, allowing all information to be displayed in a central location. SAP ERP captures single results; supports mean value formulas and enhanced SPC statistics. Aggregated values to determine key performance indicators are supported using the following SAP components: Logistics Information System in SAP ERP; QM Evaluation Cockpit in SAP ERP; predefined queries with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence; and SAP Business Objects.
MES ERP
Electronic submissions Significant savings can be achieved by adopting electronic submissions procedures. The Electronic Batch Record (EBR) process significantly reduces the number of documents, resulting in a typical 50 per cent time saving for manufacturing document preparation. E-Stability submissions, as defined by the standards, have not yet been widely adopted, but are expected to grow. PerkinElmer Ensemble provides the ability to schedule sample testing electronically, track storage locations, monitor environmental conditions and document test results and procedures to support e-stability requests. EBR is supported through several configurable
L IMS: Enhanc Ed fE aturE S
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36