Laboratory informatics systems are fuelling efficiency


The petrochemicals industry is finding that laboratory informatics can save money and improve product quality, as Tom Wilkie discovers


U


nwittingly and unwillingly but very publically, British motorists provided an object lesson in the importance of quality control in


the petrochemicals industry, almost exactly six years ago. Newspapers and television reported mysterious engine failures by up to 10,000 cars in the southern UK requiring expensive engine repairs, all as a result of damage caused by silicon-contaminated unleaded petrol sold by some supermarket petrol stations.


6 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD Out of necessity, the petrochemicals


business is global in its reach, so its quality control laboratories lie in different areas of the world and oſten use differing languages. Laboratory informatics needs to feed data and reports into other soſtware, oſten massive, company-wide management information and control systems. Te informatics reports are mission-critical – mistakes are very costly, but so too is any delay in getting results out to plant operations that use the data to tune the


manufacturing units to maximise safety, product grade, and yield. In some ways, then, the demands on


a laboratory informatics system in the petrochemicals sector appear similar to those of the pharmaceutical industry – globalised and mission-critical. But there are important differences: petrochemicals is not a ‘regulated’ industry; and, in many instances, its production processes are continuous rather than batch-oriented. It’s possible, therefore, to use many differing systems, because the laboratory informatics systems do not need to be validated to standards set by an external body such as the US Food and Drug Administration. Cost-saving and a desire to have an ‘integrated’ soſtware system may incline some companies towards an ERP-based


@scwmagazine l www.scientific-computing.com


Shell/Qatar Petroleum


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