Benefits of Automating Laboratory Workflow & Going Paperless - DHL Analytical, Inc. Case Study

Who Is DHL Analytical, Inc. An environmental testing laboratory in Round Rock Texas employing 24 highly trained staff Provides analytical testing services for Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Provides services for the DOD, TXDOT, TCEQ and the Railroad Commission and other private companies for the past 20 years. State-of-the-art facility Driven to continuously improving of all facets of its operations.

DHL Analytical Vision in 2011? Move towards a paperless laboratory to lower costs of space, paper and copier supplies, and manpower Finding a document management system that: Efficiently accesses and collates documents for all types of reports (Level 1 – Level 4) Mimics hard copy filing system, thus making it intuitive for staff to learn. Creates reports compliant to client and DoD specifications, Minimizes environmental impact

Negative Aspects of Paper Based System High printing and storage costs Paper systems are hard to maintain Slows down retrieval of documents/ results Creating complex reports is very labor intensive and slow Not environmentally friendly Positive Aspects of Paper Based System Familiar and well-known processes Tactile and intuitive

Costs of Paper Based System Typical U.S. Environmental Laboratory: Each employee consumes 50,000 pages per year (100 reams/year). Estimated paper cost of *$.07 to $.10 per page (*paper, print, copier, storage costs combined) Minimum annual paper cost of $84,000 for a mid-sized 24 person laboratory.

Impact of Paper Use in an Environmental Laboratory 1 ton of paper = 200,000 sheets paper = 400 reams. Each environmental lab worker uses 50,000 sheets per year (100 reams/year). 4 environmental lab workers produce 1 ton of paper/year. 24 person environmental lab produces 6 tons of paper annually.

Typical Paper Based Process of Data Package Assembly

DHL Challenges in 2011 DHL manually produced complex Level 3 and 4 data packages with paper. They were very labor intensive and costly to produce Lab Documents and data were stored in disconnected repositories. Search and retrieval was very difficult and time consuming. Paper, copier and storage costs associated with maintaining paper based system were high.

DHL Challenges in 2011 Paper-based processes for tracking the status of the documents needed for a completed data packages was very cumbersome and error prone. Document controls such as versioning and audit trails were missing or inadequate. Labs customers were expecting consistent high quality reports and quicker turn- around times for all reports including Level 3 and Level 4.

DHL Analytical Solution Options Considered Develop solution internally Copier companies generic document management solutions Agilent Open Lab - SDMS Labcore (www.lab-core.com) from Poplar Solutions Did not consider LIMS company document management enhancements/ add-ons – due to age of LIMS

Factors DHL Analytical Considered Before Purchase How tightly does it integrate with existing LIMS and can it capture data from all instruments? Does it have full search capabilities allows rapid retrieval of reports or individual documents? Does it have specific workflows that mimic paper based document interaction? Does it have full document controls including versioning and audit trail history?

Factors DHL Analytical Considered Before Purchase How intuitive is the user interface? How quickly will it be adopted and deployed? Will it create high quality data packages of all types required by DoD and other customers and how quickly will it collate and assemble complex CLP-like Level 4 reports? How flexible and configurable to my needs? Cost – How quickly will it take to have an ROI?

DHL Analytical in 2011 Company Performance – Pre Labcore DHL staffing was 23 FTE plus a summer intern to help out. Revenue was $X and total number of sample preps and tests for the year was 78,000 with 90% on time. The database counts each preparation and each analysis separately. Work load started increasing about the time DHL implemented Labcore (2011 due to better economy in general).

DHL Analytical Company 2015 Performance – Post Labcore Since 2011 DHL staff count increased +1 person. 2014 Revenue is $X + 42%, and total number of sample preps and tests for the year was 121,000 with 98% on time. This is a 64% increase in preps & tests and 42% increase in revenue over 2011. DHL credits Labcore as the largest factor for increased efficiency and productivity . Other influences: 1) the efficiency of analysts; 2) good instrumentation 3) newer instruments are faster than the ones that have been replaced.

DHL Analytical Company 2015 Performance – Post Labcore Reduced hours needed to assemble complex Level 3 and 4 data packages by approximately 70%. Data package turnaround time has improved by 15% for Level 1 packages Search and retrieval reduced from 10 minutes per incident to 2 minutes per incident, an 80% gain in productivity.

DHL Analytical Company 2015 Performance – Post Labcore 94% cost reduction from decreased paper, toner, and copier maintenance costs. Data packages are now competitive with anyone; high quality, delivered quickly and at a highly competitive price.

DHL Analytical Staff Feedback After Using Labcore for 1 year

Screen Capture/ Demonstration

Conclusion: Automating laboratory workflow and moving to a paperless system can improve profitability and efficiency dramatically. Also, the laboratory staff even like and prefer the change and do not want return to the old ways. Improve success by doing the following: Tight integration with existing LIMS Enforce structure and a configuration of the new system that closely resembles the laboratories current workflow and paper process.

Labcore is a division on Poplar Solutions, LLC Labcore Background Labcore is a division on Poplar Solutions, LLC mission is simple: to improve productivity, efficiency and regulatory compliance for our customers through automated software solutions and to reduce the environmental impact of business by eliminating paper-based processes. Focused on environmental laboratories particularly those producing complex data packages. Customers currently using this version of Labcore SDMS.

Data Package Management problems we solve? Reduce and even eliminate paper and costs for maintaining boxes of paper for many years. Reducing labor costs and overhead costs for delivering data packages to customers. Expediting search and retrieval of data package records. Automation of manual paper processes making them less tedious, slow and error prone. Dramatically speed up time to assemble, paginate and review data packages. Reduce risk for litigation and audit by providing full audit trail and version history.

Contact Information: Labcore – www.lab-core.com Mark S. Ferrero President Poplar Solutions, LLC P.O. Box 221 Mohnton, PA 19540 877-847-9455 Office 610-223-4189 Cell mferrero@poplarsolutions.com LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/markferrero Skype ID - mark.ferrero