Enhanced Materials Manager Capability introduced to LIMS

An enhanced materials manager capability has been introduced to Two Fold Software Limited’s (UK) innovative Qualoupe LIMS solution which enables users to easily define the wide variety of materials that they test in their organisation.

The materials manager application allows manufacturers to manage data relating to raw materials, finished products and intermediate products. For a commercial contract laboratory the enhanced materials manager software improves the handling of data from routine samples sent to them for testing by their customers. Many laboratories call these ‘specifications’ because they like to define what tests are performed when testing samples of a certain material type, and what acceptable limits are applicable to ensure the material meets the necessary specification.

“Most LIMS in the market place cannot handle unlimited specifications for each material type,” explained Clive Collier, Two Fold Software’s Managing Director. “Companies who manufacture products for resale across the world are often faced with material specification limits that can vary for each country, even though the product is exactly the same. Label declaration limits, for example, may vary widely from country to country. When you cannot handle multiple limits in a LIMS the only way to cope with this requirement is to create multiple material records for each required specification, even if it is the same product being shipped. This often leads to coding issues because a means to differentiate each material specification is needed, and the administrative task to control all of these material records can prove a real burden”.

Qualoupe’s materials manager capability has been developed to ensure that there is only one material record that lists all the required specifications within the record. It also addresses another vital need relating to multiple specifications which occurs where a product is sold to multiple customers who require different limits and different Certificate of Analysis (COA) formats. To simplify the whole process Qualoupe has been developed to allow multiple customers to be linked to any of the specifications attached to the material.

When processing batches or single samples for a specific material, the user can select the specification to be used for processing that batch or single sample.