The management of all interdependent processes, which is the responsibility of a laboratory, is a complex task that requires the implementation of appropriate processes and tools in terms of laboratory data management. This is in order to be able to easily exploit and enhance test data, by setting up indicators to measure results, but also to plan the resources needed to carry out each test. Moreover, the laboratory data management system set up by the company must be able to monitor all processes, from the test request to the obtaining of results.
In fact, these test data exist in huge amounts in laboratories, not to mention the good practice processes to be followed. So, these mountains of data are very often scattered in a myriad of different documents. This raises a problem of standardizing the format of the document, in order to ensure its accessibility to all those who need access.
Also, this retention of knowledge creates a strong devaluation of employees’ missions. According to an IDC survey, knowledge workers spend 44% of their time searching for the relevant information they need but do not find it. When scaled up to the cost of capitalizing resources, this lost time is estimated, on average, at $5,700 per person, per year.
It is therefore clear that the experts’ high value-added missions are only hampered by requests or information searches. Therefore, the sharing of knowledge in an organized network makes it possible to avoid the phenomenon of “corporate amnesia”, this inevitable consequence following the departure of an expert. Also, the profitability of a test data is strictly proportional to the number of tests performed to observe this result. The lack of knowledge sharing often forces companies to run the same test several times, without knowing that the data is already known by other departments.
In addition to this lack of knowledge sharing, it is important for a laboratory to be able to perpetuate the good practices to be implemented. One of the most common solutions is based on operational indicators such as the planning rate, response resources. Finally, it is also a plus that makes it possible to integrate the KPIs of subcontractors, which are used to optimize procurement and inventory management, for example. These good practices can be evaluated by following a validation workflow: simple, fast, formal and above all effective.
