Laboratory automation and laboratory informatics Building a Smart Laboratory 2012


Fig. 1: The Gartner Hype Cycles Visibility


workflow requirements. Some organisations have chosen to implement generic ELN functionality within the framework of their standard IT tools, such as Lotus Notes and SharePoint. In the academic community, blogging tools have been used to record experimental work and thus provide the basic features of an ELN, with a strong emphasis on sharing and collaboration, and in the form of a laboratory journal.


What is laboratory automation?


Technology trigger


Peak


of inflated expectations


Trough of disillusionment Maturity


Technology Trigger: The first phase of a Hype Cycle is the ‘technology trigger’ or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant interest.


Peak of Inflated Expectations: In the next phase, a frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.


Trough of Disillusionment: Technologies enter the ‘trough of disillusionment’ because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.


Slope of Enlightenment: Although the press may have stopped covering the technology, some businesses continue through the ‘slope of enlightenment’ and experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology.


Plateau of Productivity: A technology reaches the ‘plateau of productivity’ as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves in second and third generations. The final height of the plateau varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or benefits only a niche market.


question, do biologists just need a generic ELN that will integrate with their existing soſtware tools, or do they need a complete suite of functionality that is embedded in the ELN? Te dilemma for the biologists is whether there is a commercial ELN that addresses their specific and diverse requirements. Furthermore, for those companies that need to support chemists and biologists, the question is whether it is possible to find a single vendor solution that addresses the requirements of both disciplines, or whether to choose the best of breed for each discipline. Interestingly, within the past two or


three years, there seems to be another emerging ELN domain; that of QA/QC and the regulatory world. A few vendors have concentrated specifically on this area, with products that are strongly aligned to laboratory workflows, following the step-by- step execution of SOPs (standard operating


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procedures) or Test Methods. Te products are more structured than we would expect from a ‘conventional’ ELN and in some respects appear to be functionally closer to a LIMS. Tis particular segment of the


market has seen a number of vendors extending the functionality available in their LIMS to embrace some of the more unstructured requirements associated with experimentation. It could be argued that such products may be better labelled as ‘laboratory execution systems’ as they follow a very prescriptive approach applicable to those communities engaged in regulatory-based testing. Te generic functionality required just


to replace a paper notebook can be a simple authoring tool capable of generating a compound-document. However, additional capability will be needed for storing and searching documents, and for addressing


Slope of enlightenment


Plateau of productivity


Laboratory automation is defined as the use of technology to streamline or substitute manual manipulation of equipment and processes. In considering the smart laboratory, the first stage is to look at basic lab processes and computerised systems: how do they currently operate and how should they integrate? A lab may have many data systems associated with the main analytical techniques, such as chromatography, MS, UV, NIR, etc., and so can appear on the surface to be very effective, but in practice these are islands of automation in an ocean of paper. Te main way that data is transferred


from system to system is via manual input, using paper as the transport medium – a slow and inefficient process. Furthermore, the process will have evolved over time and may have additional tasks that do not add any value to the laboratory output and so it becomes very slow and inefficient. Te diagnostic approach to an integrated


laboratory is to map the current processes and then redesign and optimise them to use IT systems effectively and efficiently, ensuring they deliver business benefit in terms of productivity, IP protection and regulatory compliance. Terefore, the process maps for the current working practices describe what you do and why you do it. In many instances it will be due to one or more of the following: • Custom and practice (we have always worked this way);


• Evolution over time (we have had new projects or new tasks to do);


• Extensive quality control checks (the FDA didn’t like our previous way of working.


Te main aim is to understand where there are bottlenecks and issues in the process – analyse and find the root causes as they will help you to challenge and improve the process. When the current process is redesigned and optimised, the aim must be


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