Solution Summary

LIMS – Laboratory Information Management Systems

A LIMS is a data collection and reporting system designed to be used in the laboratory. These tend to be very specialized systems, and there are only a few suppliers of “true” LIMS systems. QIC personnel are trained in 2 of these.

However, except for situations where the lab is very large, 90% or more of LIMS systems functions are provided by enterprise oriented Statistical Process Control Systems. Most of these can be set up using GainSeeker, just not as elegantly as in a “True” LIMS. However, in some areas, GainSeeker SPC is has functionality not available in many traditional LIMS, specifically in its capability to interface to instruments.

Considering the significant difference in investment between a “True LIMS” and a fully featured SPC implementation, this is a very viable approach for many labs. The only sacrificed functionality is:

Microbiological Test Expression – Microbiological tests tend to be reported not in absolute terms, but rather in terms of below a certain threshold. Whereas an SPC system would report an instrument result of 009 PPM as .009PPM, a LIMS may report this as <.010 PPM.

Work orders. A fully featured LIMS system is like an ERP system in many respects, to the point where it may require a work order to be generated to have tests performed. This is in keeping with the concept of a LIMS being more of a total management system for a lab, as opposed to a data collection system. Again, this may be a requirement of a large lab.

Test scheduling – For larger labs where there are many technicians, many high end LIMS systems allow a level of automatic scheduling of personnel. This assumes that there are a number of specific tests that need to be done, and a limited number of resources to do them. In a sense, this is very similar to Finite Capacity Planning in an ERP system. But the reality is that most plant labs are less than 20 people, and scheduling is not a major problem.

Even if the client uses a LIMS, given the superior instrument interfacing capability, QIC may use the data collection engine of the SPC solution to populate the LIMS database directly. This often provides an easier to use and more cost effective solution than trying to interface instruments directly to the LIMS.

To provide data collection and analysis of LIMS data, we have had excellent success with GainSeeker™ SPC from Hertzler Systems Inc.

Firstly, the vendor and solution meets all of our criteria for selecting systems.

Secondly, GainSeeker SPC provides an excellent balance between very sophisticated statistical analysis capabilities, and extremely easy to use data collection capability. The mathematics are validated by qualified statisticians. Although there are about 150 SPC software packages available, there are only 4 or 5 that are enterprise oriented, 21CFR part 11 compliant, ODBC compliant, configurable, and easy to integrate with other MES and ERP systems.

Thirdly, GainSeeker™ is competitively priced for both small clients as well as multi-plant, multinational implementations.

For an overview of GainSeeker functionality, click here.