Global Manufacturing Simplified: Taking Control of Laboratory Data Management with a LIMS

A manufacturing entity with a rapidly growing network of 20 sites globally and counting, faced major obstacles in streamlining its laboratory data management. Each of its laboratories relied on a disparate set of tools—from Excel and Google Sheets to custom databases, resulting in a lack of standardization. The organization wanted all of their sites to look and operate similarly. Moreover, processes for communicating results were outdated. Results were handwritten, then faxed or relayed over the phone. These methods were not only inefficient but also prone to errors, risking the dissemination of incorrect information.  

The organization recognized the need for a unified approach.  They sought an easy-to-use, customizable Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) with multi-site and multi-lingual capabilities, as well as connectivity to SAP and reporting tools. The LIMS must have the capabilities to monitor and control product quality, support Statistical Quality Control (SQC) data, and include built-in analysis and charting features. Also, given the global distribution of sites, remote implementation of the LIMS was essential.

Confience’s eLIMS, a robust, web-based LIMS, was chosen to efficiently streamline and standardize data management across all their laboratories.  

Before the LIMS implementation, the organization developed a clear strategy, ensuring solid infrastructure, reliable network connectivity, and sufficient bandwidth at each site. Equally crucial was securing leadership buy-in—commitment to dedicated human resources, time, and capital.

Each site has its own lab manager and lab technicians. The lab manager acts as the LIMS Administrator. With proper permissions set, LIMS Admins can add new users, set up new products, matrices, and process testing, and give final approvals for quality data. The introduction of a standardized LIMS has also streamlined training, enabling uniform instruction across all sites.  

Effective change management is critical for a successful LIMS implementation. As part of their change management approach, the organization embraced a mindset shift, encouraging an open attitude towards the new technology. Once proven effective, the LIMS essentially sold itself. With a solid plan, open mindset, team buy-in, and proper executive sponsorship, the LIMS implementation has proceeded smoothly and has been well-received.

Implementing Confience eLIMS has provided significant benefits:
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• Comprehensive Testing Capabilities: Set up of Raw Material Testing, Process Testing and Finished Product Testing.
  

• Seamless Integration: SAP integration and the ability to connect with other systems provides a comprehensive data management solution, streamlining operations and providing the ability for advanced statistical analysis.
  

• Real-Time Monitoring: Instant feedback as the LIMS provides the ability to flag samples out of spec or incorrectly entered with color-coding. The Control Room Dashboard offers instant access to recent results, enhancing decision-making capabilities.
  

• Improved Communication: Quality Metrics are now communicated more efficiently across departments.
  

• Time Savings: Regional Quality Managers can remotely access data instantly through the LIMS, eliminating the need to pull files or request information.
  

• Advanced Analytics: Enhanced reporting and analytics tools empower organizations with deeper insights and better data-driven decisions. After using the LIMS for many years, team have the ability to compare data from different plants in different countries, relying on the new uniformity and consistency of quality control data management systems across all locations.
  

• Real-time SQC Reporting and Charting: SQC enables plant technicians and QC managers to view current data easily and compare it statistically to previous trends and history. As a result, the team is able to immediately react to data anomalies and respond in real time.
  

• Document Management: Attachment and document generation for items such as CoAs.  
  

• Multi-Lingual Capabilities: Due to the global nature of the project, local cultures, security, and accessibility had to be accommodated. While English is understood and spoken in most of the plants, there was a requirement to be able to work in the local language, especially for QC technicians and production operators. Confience translated the entire package into French, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese allowing the plants in those areas to work and even enter results in their local languages. Data sharing across countries was further achieved through a method translation module allowing users to view test names in their respective local languages.
  

• Instrument Maintenance and Calibrations: Confience eLIMS fully supports instrument integration, allowing data generated by laboratory instruments to be automatically transferred and recorded within the LIMS, streamlining workflows, minimizing manual data entry, and improving data accuracy and consistency. Confience has a comprehensive library with hundreds of different instruments previously interfaced with our LIMS.

Additionally, Confience eLIMS functionality lets users define and monitor each instrument used for analyzing samples. It offers an online system to track all instrument maintenance, schedule future maintenance events, and recall past maintenance records, assisting with regulatory compliance.  

• Mobility: Access to Confience eLIMS from any device—computer, laptop, tablet, phone —anywhere, anytime. With internet accessibility as the only requirement for individual desktops, adding sites to the system was simply a matter of inserting local configuration requirements and already-supported multi-lingual modules.
  

• Security: To address who controls and monitors access to individual modules within Confience eLIMS, security measures are built into the system.
  

• Support: Confience eLIMS won the team’s attention based on its minimal requirement for local IT support. Its user-friendly structure and format allowed plant technicians who are responsible for sample login, data entry, and data transfer to the ERP systems to accomplish training in only 45 minutes per group. Training for a system of this nature and scope can otherwise take days to complete.

The implementation of Confience eLIMS has unified production data across multiple plants and countries, optimized test plans, reduced the need for many in-process adjustments, and better quantified improvements in process capability (Cp/CpK).

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