What Can a LIMS System Do For Your Laboratory

A laboratory information management system ismanagement system proper.
software which is usually, but by no meansWith a growing interest in scalability in data
always used in a laboratory setting. A LIMSmanagement systems, these software solutions
system is used to manage and track materialsoffer research institutions and industry a user
and data including samples and instruments, workfriendly method of managing large volumes of
flow, invoicing, reporting and a variety of otherinformation across a single laboratory or many
functions.different facilities worldwide. These information
These information management systems maymanagement systems provide the ability to
either be designed for a relatively narrow rangeincrease efficiency and throughput in the
of capabilities or built to be a flexible, versatilelaboratory or production facility by facilitating
system which can handle tracking andautomation and reducing the possibility of human
management of any task in the laboratory.error by integrating instruments directly into
These systems are also widely used byworkflow, one of the chief advantages of LIMS
companies who manufacture goods; the samesystems.
kind of functionality which makes a laboratoryOne of the challenges of managing a laboratory or
information management system nearlyproduction facility is ensuring regulatory
indispensible in a high sample volume laboratorycompliance. Another reason why an increasing
environment also suits LIMS systems to use innumber of laboratories are adopting the use of a
industrial scale production processes. There arelaboratory information management system is to
many similarities between these softwarestreamline the regulatory compliance procedures in
systems and process development and laboratoryplace in the facility by increasing the level of
information systems, though they may be used inaccountability and improve the accuracy of
nearly any environment where the storage,internal audits, something which many of these
management and retrieval of large amounts ofsystems are designed to carry out.
data is mission critical.Not every laboratory has yet begun using these
The systems are used far beyond the medicalsoftware systems to handle the management
and scientific fields, being part of production andand tracking of their samples, reagents,
quality control systems in the pharmaceutical,instruments and to monitor workflow and to
petrochemical and nuclear energy sectors,provide an easy to use framework for the large
environmental analysis, water testing and manyvolumes of data generated by the modern
other applications across a broad spectrum oflaboratory, but the trend towards LIMS systems
economic sectors as well as the sciences. Inis a rapidly growing one. The advantages of these
nearly every environment where they are used,systems is well known, however and it is a near
LIMS systems are integrated with instruments,certainty that nearly every laboratory and
whether in the production environment or withproduction facility will have a laboratory
measurement instruments or other laboratoryinformation management system in place in the
equipment when used as a laboratory informationvery near future.