Laboratory automation: a survival guide

Guide is the start of a process of establishing policies, practices, and operational models that provides a basis for the definition, design, development and implementation of lab automation systems

Too often, says Delphinus, laboratory automation is viewed in terms of technologies and products, the things people use to implement projects.

What is overlooked is the planning that is needed on a management level to provide a basis for the successful development of laboratory automation systems.

Successful systems, those that meet their objectives, are supportable and can be gracefully upgraded as needed, are not the result of fix-the-bottleneck methodologies.

They are the result of design-against-a-plan methods.

That planning should be the province of lab management working to provide systems that will enable those in the lab to work at their fullest level of capability, to be productive.

The material you are reading is the starting point.

The benefits of that planning include: improving the effectiveness of automation systems, and their ability to be supported, reducing laboratory operating costs and improving ROI, meeting the demands of regulatory agencies, a basis for coordinating the work of outside contractors and equipment vendors, protect / enhance the value of the labs intellectual property, and, make the most effective use of people's talents.

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