Benefits of Good Sample Management

Good inventory management is an integral part of the modern scientific workspace and managing it with an integrated inventory system can have  positive impacts.

Inventory forms the core of life in a lab and innovative work relies on a well-managed inventory system. Every lab has samples to test, materials with which to test them, and equipment to run assays, all of which need to be tracked, logged and reported on.

But many labs still use disparate systems to capture required metadata. This, in combination with transcription errors introduced by manual processes, can cost labs thousands in rework.

The Cost of Manual Errors

The most common mistakes in the lab are simple: mislabeling, handling, storage and misidentifying a sample. As the inaccuracies cascade, reporting becomes challenging, if not impossible.

Studies have shown that out of every 100 characters, three are incorrectly transcribed. This translates as three out of ten labels. Imagine the impact on data accuracy and integrity, and the amount of costly rework a mislabeled sample generates? But these errors can be easily prevented with effective sample management.

Knowing What You Have

It is not uncommon to order a reagent, then find enough stock for a year hidden away in a store room. Another common scenario is to fetch a piece of equipment you need but discover that it has been damaged.

Through effective inventory management of equipment, materials and samples, organizations can reduce their capital investment and better leverage existing resources in a compliant manner.

Enhance Accuracy and Data Integrity

Using automation, processes are streamlined, and high levels of accuracy maintained. This includes:

• • Scanning barcodes to eliminate transcription errors, and printing labels using Bartender™ or Zebra™
  • Automatically capturing and entering inventory data during a workflow to facilitate accurate reporting and laboratory compliance to regulatory guidelines
  • Leveraging powerful search tools to enable scientists to search what is being used, when, and by whom.

Traceability Helps Prevent Issues

• • • Added context improves the quality of experiments and helps gain better insight.
    • Materials can be stored and used efficiently, being tracked at all points of the project. Users can be alerted to low quantities or expired samples.
    • Equipment status can be easily reported, alerting users to out-of-calibration events.
    • All activity is logged, and you can view the status of an item when it was used  for additional compliance auditing.

What can E-WorkBook Inventory Offer You?

E-WorkBook Inventory forms an integral part of E-WorkBook, an enterprise-ready scientific sample management platform for R&D organizations. It provides context to run a lab efficiently and cost-effectively.

You can access and manipulate your lab inventory from anywhere, at any time. Inventory has been designed to store your equipment-, material- and sample-related information all in one place. With advanced searching and filtering capabilities, E-WorkBook Inventory streamlines inventory management, including tracking materials and keeping up-to-date with the status of equipment.

Security and Access Control

E-WorkBook Inventory provides a secure permissions-based data model, to limit the user’s ability to have read-only access or edit capability to selected properties. This prevents unauthorized access or unintentional changes to records and items.

If you’re looking to revamp your inventory management, talk to our team of experts today.