More and more laboratories are using computerized management tools to address the many issues involved in capitalizing on experimental data, such as traceability, safety, research and exploitation of results. Among them, research, analytical development and analysis laboratories are turning to Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN), which ensure digital continuity throughout the life cycle of projects and analyses, and digitize laboratory notebooks.
The principle behind the laboratory notebook is simple: it enables researchers, engineers and technicians to “record the day-to-day details of their work” – CNRS. Thanks to this traceability, the laboratory notebook facilitates the search for work already carried out, and makes it possible, for example, to prove anteriority linked to the drafting of a patent. However, hand-written laboratory notebooks, as they are still sometimes used, have intrinsic limitations that prevent them from being used. Indeed, searching for a precise analysis carried out in the context of a particular study a few years ago can quickly prove long and tedious. This is also a limitation when it comes to handing over work, or even simply for team research.
Not only does ELN effectively address these limitations, but it also offers many other advantages that generate productivity gains for laboratories, and give laboratory staff more time to carry out their high-value-added actions. In this way, ELN maximizes the use of laboratory technical assets.
Indeed, having an ELN means first and foremost capitalizing on all laboratory activity in a structured way in a single database accessible by all users according to their rights. This means benefiting from all the advantages of IT, with advanced research tools and the ability to exploit work already carried out. It also means ensuring data integrity, thanks to advanced traceability modules that automatically build up a genuine history of actions carried out and results obtained. In addition, validation processes can be adapted to mark the passage of various research milestones.
However, using an ELN also means equipping yourself with a powerful data-entry tool capable of providing masks for entering results, thus limiting the risk of errors, and even going as far as automatically importing data directly from measurement equipment. A digital laboratory notebook is also practical in the sense that it can also accompany technicians to their benches when used on a tablet, for example. In addition to capitalizing on analysis processes and results, the ELN can be used to collect all other useful data, whether directly or indirectly related to research.
The user is thus free to enter as much information, comments, observations and conclusions as he or she wishes on all the objects that make up the database, such as samples, products and raw materials used. In the case of products, for example, you can optimize recipes with a formulation aid, schematize your work with molecular drawing or even manage stocks with automatic alerts when the remaining quantity exceeds the safety threshold. Finally, all data in the database can be output in the form of an automatically-generated report based on free, scalable templates, eliminating the need for double entry.
Going a step further, ELN can be used to digitize the entire laboratory activity. In fact, resource planning can be managed using directly integrated Gantt-type modules. The manager can therefore have a clear and rapid overview of his staff’s activity by tracking time spent in detail, of authorizations with an up-to-date skills matrix, and also of the occupation of machinery by visualizing, for example, the maintenance periods for measuring equipment or their metrological validity. Going even further, the integration of staff time spent on projects or research, and all the automatic reporting that follows, is often used to justify declarations for research tax credits. What’s more, indicators can be generated for defined periods, enabling optimized use of data. Last but not least, thanks to the basic functions and all this ancillary management, the laboratory is fully able to ensure compliance with standards, to justify conformity with ISO standards and to respond comfortably to the “Audit Trail”.
Finally, the TEEXMA®software package offers all these advantages through its ELN module, in which the technician can detail all the stages of his experiments, from idea to conclusion.
For more information, please contact us to discuss your requirements. Our quality experts can answer any questions you may have about setting up quality indicators with QMS.
