Confience helps Microban® Gain Unprecedented Productivity with Sample Master® LIMS
Its ease of use and customization made migration to Sample Master a breeze.
Microban® is the global leader in built-in antimicrobial product protection solutions for consumer, industrial, and medical products around the world. Microban technology inhibits the growth of microbes such as bacteria, mold, and mildew that can cause stains, odors, and deterioration of products, and can be engineered into a variety of materials including polymers, textiles, coatings, paper, and adhesives.
Their Challenge
Microban has a matrix list of more than 160 materials that are representative of their routine samples varying from liquids to powders, textiles to polymers of various compositions, ceramics to caulks and adhesives. Each of these materials may be tested according to one or more of 50 different microbiological or chemical tests. The typical lab throughput for microbiology and chemistry testing is approximately 3,000+ tests per month, requiring significant amounts of test data to be generated, reported, and tracked by material, project, and test type. Testing information is regularly reviewed by engineers within the various R&D departments and by senior management to assess the probabilities of success of projects and to spot trends indicative of successful development. Also, the sales department needs timely access to information relating to Microban clients' abilities to successfully implement antimicrobial technology into their products. These demands have led to the emergence of the Testing Laboratory as the single largest department in the company. Because of the large investment associated with demands, there is a constant need to monitor the flow of samples within the lab and identify areas for improved efficiency through more effective resource deployment.
Duane Centola | Laboratory Manager, Microban®
Our Solution
Confience’s Sample Master LIMS is enabling the Microban laboratory to achieve their commitment to generating quality data, improving turnaround time, and automating as many manual laboratory tasks as possible. Key LIMS advantages include responsiveness, ease of use, customization, and the ongoing support that Confience provides. The Data Entry interface is so simple and straightforward that chemists quickly learned how to use the software, resulting in rapid deployment. Microbiologists are enjoying unprecedented productivity in their test throughput by employing automated bacterial colony enumeration followed by data parsing with appropriate automatic calculations and reporting logic built into the parsers. With the judicious use of barcodes on the samples, test data is easily and quickly imported into Sample Master with total accuracy. Confience also developed instrument output parsers for Microban's HPLCs, GCMS, LCMS, and two different bacterial colony counters. Instrument integration saves time, and results in higher data quality with less chance of transcription errors.