Despite the abundance of digital tools on the market, the life science laboratory trails behind in solutions for digital data capture and real-time consumables tracking, resulting in less productivity and resource waste. MilliporeSigma’s new LANEXO™ system is a vendor-neutral digital solution for inventory, safety and compliance management that provides complete lab coverage. Using radio-frequency identification (RFID) labels on consumables, users can now digitally manage their entire inventory in a safe and regulatory compliant way.
The Cost of Inefficiency
Based on a recent survey we conducted with many of our customers, we found that on average their labs were spending 25 percent of their vital work time on inventory management (Fig 1). Even more troublesome is that 85 percent of their labs still use paper or spreadsheets to track the reagents and consumables used in studies. This level of inefficiency is surprising given that we have come to rely on digital solutions for almost every aspect of our daily lives – there are even smart refrigerators that alert us when the milk is about to expire.
Current inventory systems that rely on manual entry of consumables information not only lead to wastes of time and money, but are also vulnerable to human error, posing risks to both data quality and lab safety. Further, these systems do not adequately support the needs of laboratories for audit readiness and GxP/regulatory compliance.
Scientists racing to develop life-saving vaccines against novel pathogens or other clinical treatments simply cannot afford such inefficiencies.
Digital Inventory with RFID Labels
MilliporeSigma developed its LANEXO™ lab Inventory, safety and compliance management system based on global customer surveys that revealed a clear need for smarter solutions that track the lifecycle of lab consumables and facilitate regulatory compliance (Fig 2).
The system addresses these needs with digital data capture and RFID labels placed directly on consumables, which lets users easily track vital information, such as open and expiration dates, on a mobile app. RFID technology helps ensure continuous tracking as it is not compromised by ice or other physical impediments one might find in the laboratory environment.
Digital archiving and real-time access to inventory data foster accuracy and safety in the lab and improve the traceability of compliance documentation. For inventory managers, quality/EHS managers and other lab personnel who spend countless hours digging through binders for such data, this is long overdue.
MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system is the newest addition to our portfolio of productivity solutions that help scientists in the lab focus on bringing drugs to market rather than mundane administrative tasks.
Label. Scan. Track.
Using MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system, all approved lab personnel can easily track the information and movement associated with every chemical, reagent and consumable, in real-time. One big benefit of the system is that it is completely vendor-neutral. This means labs can achieve complete coverage for all the consumables purchased from MilliporeSigma or other suppliers.
Registration of inventory items using the LANEXO™ system is as simple as scanning the supplier label. The system then digitally captures general information for each item from its extensive database of 700,000 MilliporeSigma articles and 53 million third-party articles. This information is then digitally linked with unique LANEXO™ RFID labels placed on each consumable.
A unique feature of MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system is its ability to automatically capture open dates. A Smart Seal RFID Label attached to a consumable captures the opening date and calculates the expiration date based on when the tamper-proof seal is broken.
Location RFID labels for storage cabinets and designated access cards for each user further ensure complete traceability.
Just imagine what it would be like to scan a vial and know instantly who initially opened it, who used it last and when it will expire.
Increased Productivity
Test sites that first implemented MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system reported an immediate increase in productivity. Overall, users spent 97 percent less time annually on tasks related to chemical inventory management — the 100 hours typically spent on manual tracking every year was cut down to only three hours using the LANEXO™ System (Fig 3).
Further, the average time required to find and document consumable data during an experiment dropped by 92 percent, from 50 minutes to only 4 minutes. The numbers have spoken: LANEXO™ is a game-changer.
The significant efficiency benefits are attributed to seamless data capture and easy access to information on the intuitive LANEXO™ app. Information that is traditionally recorded and tracked manually, like open/expiry dates, location, ownership and per-unit consumption are all digitally tracked by the system. Automatic alerts about expired or low-stock items means labs remain fully stocked and avoid wasting precious reagents.
Highly regulated laboratories also need to fully document consumable information during the course of experimental workflows. MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system simplifies this process and helps create accurate audit trails for all the reagents, intermediates and mixtures used in an experiment. Most importantly, the system immediately notifies the user if a scanned chemical is expired.
Safety and Compliance Integration
Accurate documentation of consumables’ lifecycle is critical to GxP adherence in the modern laboratory. The fully searchable LANEXO™ digital inventory system facilitates audit-readiness and GxP/regulatory compliance by instantly matching reagents, including in-house preparations, with a full audit report. The system has all the required authentication, security and traceability features to support laboratory compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and EU GMP Annex 11.
By replacing manual methods with digitized real-time inventory monitoring, MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system safeguards against human transcription errors and avoids the huge cost and time setbacks when such errors are inadvertently carried over to experimental workflows.
The real-time access to information and improved accuracy translates to not only improved quality, but also safety compliance in the lab. For example, the LANEXO™ System alerts the user when incompatible reagents are stored together – think fire safety. Further, real-time access to the most current SDS information allow for safe handling and disposal of chemicals.
Easy to Use
MilliporeSigma designed its LANEXO™ system for easy implementation and integration into existing workflows. Its intuitive web application coupled with a user-friendly mobile app makes this process straightforward to adopt by all users.
Registration of new consumables and real-time tracking of inventory data is incredibly easy by simply scanning the RFID labels. All approved users can enjoy shared access to the information through a secure web interface. Digital capture of information coupled to automatic alerts about expiration dates, low stocks, and safety incompatibility results in tangible savings of time for basic operational and experimental workflow processes.
With MilliporeSigma’s LANEXO™ system in place, laboratories are finally free to focus more on doing science, just as they should be.
Get Set for the Future
While the LANEXO™ system is revolutionizing inventory, safety and regulatory compliance monitoring, the developers behind the technology are already planning for the future.
The RFID technology used in the LANEXO™ system is a dual-frequency system that supports both near-field communication (NFC) and ultra-high frequency (UHF). While the current system operates as an NFC system to detect labels a few feet away from an NFC-enabled mobile device, MilliporeSigma envisions future systems with UHF RFID functionality that can read labels over greater distances.
A Sustainable Way Forward
Cumbersome systems of manual documentation and inventory tracking are not only a risk to data integrity and lab safety, but also come at a big cost to workplace throughput.
The LANEXO™ system is a much-needed digital update for managing inventory, safety and compliance in the laboratory. Through digital data capture and RFID label consumables-tracking, the system immediately boosts productivity, efficiency and overall safety. It also removes many hurdles in the already complex regulatory compliance process with improved traceability and instant access to audit reports. Finally, a paperless digital inventory with real-time tracking is the only sustainable way forward.
Those who have already implemented the system have seen substantial time, cost and quality benefits. What will your lab do with all of that extra time?