Academic research lab inventory system

thinlizzy2012 · 26-06-2014 12:12pm #1

Hi all,
We are currently developing and academic research lab inventory system for chemical inventory. Our goal is to make labs a safer and more efficient place to work. If you have any interest in this area we would love to hear from you, especially if currently working in university labs.

SOL · 26-06-2014 8:18pm

Not currently working in a lab but I would have interest in collaborating on this topic, I've had experience of some effective and some very ineffective systems but I would love to see one geared towards academic situations in terms of function and cost...

Mucco · 28-06-2014 11:47am

I suggest you get full user requirements from as many people as possible.

I would want:

Full details of chemical, including clickable links to detailed R/S information, and any local SOPs based on these.
Access to the inventory directly from my ELN.
User friendly: very low number of clicks to get what I want.
Accurate location info.
Accurate quantity remaining info. In a pharma company I worked in, all bottles were weighed on returning to the store, so the quantity remaining could be updated.
Many industry systems allow the chemist to order the compound from the central store, though this may be wishful thinking in an academic setting.
Full audit trail. This could allow analysis of data on usage, which could help bulk purchase or negotiating prices with the suppliers. This info is also useful for tracking the full life cycle of, for example, solvents. Does quantity purchased = quantity of solvent waste?.

During my PhD, I installed a chemical inventory for our group, but something like this should be across the whole department/university. It was based on ISIS Base, and was adequate for our needs at the time, so I would be very surprised if there isn't a suitable system already available.

ianobrien · 10-07-2014 9:01pm

One other feature to think about is establish min stock levels for common items (solvents, vials etc) and once the min is reached the order is either dispatched to the supplier or flagged with purchasing.

If possible, tie it in with your safety systems (online MSDS etc) to make it easier to call up safety data in case of emergency. Also, this ensures that any new chemical/material/equipment is risk assessed prior to use and a MSDS is available.

The weighing of returns is a good idea. I worked in a place that you had to manually input the amounts used and if there was a discrepancy an investigation had to be launched. This was even for analytical standards and if there was a difference even down to the mg level there was an investigation. The system was so clunky (loads of clicks and an interface that was designed pre-Microsoft) that all usage had to be entered individually and estimates of spillages entered also. Everyone hated that system so much...... They didn't use barcodes so item codes had to be entered manually.

OP, I would have a look at some of the lean labs in industry to get ideas of how to streamline systems and develop a user-friendly system. Also, as you are in academia, is there a friendly computer studies post grad that could help?

maguffin · 20-07-2014 8:31pm

Not sure if this is fits your requirements....it is a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)...I used the system produced by LABWARE at www.labware.com

check them out..they may have a module to suit your needs. I highly recommend them.

kc90 · 24-07-2014 12:44am

On the back of this, does anyone have experience or advice with assigning expiration dates to opened chemicals or in house preparations, without full on stability studies?

ianobrien · 24-07-2014 6:49pm

kc90 wrote: »

On the back of this, does anyone have experience or advice with assigning expiration dates to opened chemicals or in house preparations, without full on stability studies?

Some rough rules of thumb for opened chemicals

Mixed Mobile phases. 5 days
Aqueous solutions (unbuffered). 1 day
Inhouse made Aqueous buffers. 30 days
Organic solutions. 90 days
Purchased aqueous reagents (eg acids) 180 days
Dry chemicals (reagents). 1 year

Edit - I have seen some unusual dates, 3 years for dry reagents and 14 days for unbuffered aqueous reagents. Some dates can be unworkable. I have seen 24 hours applied to mobile phase, and a sequence run time of 28 hours!

kc90 · 25-07-2014 5:50pm

ianobrien wrote: »

Some rough rules of thumb for opened chemicals

Mixed Mobile phases. 5 days
Aqueous solutions (unbuffered). 1 day
Inhouse made Aqueous buffers. 30 days
Organic solutions. 90 days
Purchased aqueous reagents (eg acids) 180 days
Dry chemicals (reagents). 1 year

Edit - I have seen some unusual dates, 3 years for dry reagents and 14 days for unbuffered aqueous reagents. Some dates can be unworkable. I have seen 24 hours applied to mobile phase, and a sequence run time of 28 hours!

Thanks, that's a great guide. We need to do some work on how we date reagents as we're mostly using the manufacturer's at the most. It's usually fine, but there's no guarantee once the container is opened. I think the biggest challenge we'll have is backing up the dating. Without a full study we'll mostly have to focus how we're storing and using them and hope that stands up come audit time.

SOL · 27-07-2014 9:54pm

My favourite was the 'expiration' date on the sand we used for packing columns. I think it had a shelf life of 5 years or so...

kc90 · 29-07-2014 8:36pm

SOL wrote: »

My favourite was the 'expiration' date on the sand we used for packing columns. I think it had a shelf life of 5 years or so...

I laughed, and then I realized that at some stage, I'm probably going to have to find a reason why our sand last for 5 years.

Academic research lab inventory system

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