The Digital Lab

Digital lab? We do not need it!

Nov 29, 2019 12:00:00 AM / by Paul Planje

If only the media landscape is taken into account, Europe would already be fully digitalised. A real industry 4.0 Wunderland. But if you then look into the reality in the form of a randomly selected company, laboratory or other enterprise, the digitalization is quickly over. It is printed out what the printer is capable of, documents are still filled today as diligently as 30 years ago and the networking of different devices, applications or sectors is at best implemented rudimentarily. The digitization is indeed on everyone's lips - with the implementation, however, it is still enormously poor. "Why should we redesign everything here? We have been working in this way for 40 years now. Why invest in digital technology when Mrs Müller can also transfer her data manually on the fly and Mr Meier still has capacities available anyway? This or something similar is the way the opinions on the subject of digitisation are being expressed up and down the country - and most probably you will also know these or similar arguments.

Digitisation is closely related to the catchword "efficiency". Intelligent solutions, smart devices, big data and company-wide networking of different individual components to form a "big whole" serve above all one purpose: the rational, economic and modern simplification of increasingly complicated work challenges. Digital solutions also enable processes to be optimized, especially in laboratories, where huge amounts of data are generated every day and subsequently processed. Employees, who were previously busy with administrative tasks for a large part of their daily work, are relieved of routine tasks. This creates new capacities that can be invested in innovation, research and development. This also increases the satisfaction of the specialists concerned - a not inconsiderable factor in the ubiquitous "on talents".

Digitalisation not only facilitates work in the laboratory when it comes to administration. Automated processes, digitally monitored and controlled, significantly minimize potential sources of error. Digital systems never fail where a person performs erroneous calculations or enters values in the wrong column. Fewer errors means more customer satisfaction. And last but not least, more customer satisfaction means more revenue. This in turns raises the mood of your boss.

Would you like to find out more about digitisation in the laboratory or get non-binding advice on how to make your working environment fit for the digital age? Then simply write to us or give us a call. We look forward to introducing you to the fascinating possibilities of digital solutions in detail!
 
Paul Planje

Written by Paul Planje

I have been working since 1992 on subjects such as efficiency and Productivity increase. Initially in the laboratory and research sectors. Here I made my experiences with analytical instruments and automation. With the change to sales, enterprise solutions such as Scientific Data Management Systems (SDMS), Laboratory Information Systems (LIMS), Laboratory Execution Systems (LES), Electronic Laboratory Journals (ELN) and Document Management Systems (DMS) were added. In the last years I was engaged in the digitization of processes and their measurements. Scince 2019 I'm running the iVention DACH region supporting our customers to move into the digital lab world.