Leading analytical laboratory adopt LIMS to improve efficiency and best practice

Autoscribe Informatics, a Xybion Company recently released a new case study highlighting how Custom Industrial Analysis Labs (CIA Labs) adopted Autoscribe’s  Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to streamline their approval process, reduced paperwork, and improve overall turn-around times. 

CIA Labs are located in St Joseph, Missouri, they first opened its doors over 30 years ago to serve the agribusiness, food and pharmaceutical sectors, while testing for a variety of industrial and chemical clients. The organisation has a full-service contract, ISO 17025 accredited chemical analytical laboratory that provides a wide range of analytical and consulting activities for clients worldwide. 

Until opting for Autoscribe’s LIMS, CIA Labs used paper to manage each sample and its associated data, throughout the entire process - from initially registering the sample to obtaining the analytical results and calculations in the lab, including the manual creation of certificates of analysis (CofAs). Over the years the volume, complexity and variety of the testing performed has grown dramatically, to the extent that paper processes were becoming a significant bottleneck for the business.

The main benefit of Autoscribe’s LIMS has been to help eliminate these bottlenecks, by removing the need to pass paperwork between the various departments and automating the creation of reports and generating Certificates of Analysis for clients. Previously all the paperwork had to be checked and double checked manually to ensure there were no errors. Analytical results are now captured in the lab and checked online by CIA Lab’s Quality Assurance team. Certificates of Analysis are generated automatically when the checks and approvals are complete. The new LIMS has enabled CIA Labs to significantly reduce the total turnaround time from the samples’ arrival to final results being provided to the customer. 

CIA Labs are configuring the LIMS themselves giving them the flexibility to adjust the system to suit their ever-changing requirements. A CIA Labs representative stated, “The Autoscribe team were always understanding and helpful during the implementation phase, even though timescales were heavily disrupted during the implementation by us moving to larger offices and the Covid pandemic. Autoscribe support is always available should we have questions or issues; their team is always friendly and helpful.”