4 Reasons to Automate Your Lab’s Liquid Handling System
Many of today’s businesses depend on analytical chemistry for their operation. From food manufacturing to agriculture to medicine, industries across the world routinely have tasks performed in laboratories.
In this situation, quality is key. It is important to get the amount of each substance right as your subsequent business decisions would depend on it. However, spending too much time and effort to ensure an accurate testing process is counterproductive.
Such is the reality in today’s advanced business landscape. For your company to succeed, you must navigate the fine line between quality and productivity. This is where automated liquid handling systems come in.
Automating your laboratory’s dosing, diluting, pipetting, transferring, or dispensing offers many benefits, and some of these are discussed below:
Reduces Human Error
In any process with manual interaction, you always have to account for human error. In analytical chemistry, these errors have significant cost implications. One example is in the drug discovery process, where wrong doses can lead some test trials to a dead end. This is costly in terms of time, effort, and money.
By automating your liquid handling process, you can ensure that each material dispensed during the process is the right amount. You have a high level of confidence once you get your results, allowing you to make the correct decisions.
Reduces the Effect of Changes in the Environment
Aside from variations due to manual handling, there are other factors that must be considered. This includes even the slightest changes in temperature and humidity. By automating your laboratory’s handling of liquid, you can keep the system closed and protected from variations in the immediate surrounding. This reduces the number of factors that could affect the process.
Increases Productivity
Laboratories have some of the brightest minds in the industry. Lab workers have much more to offer aside from manually performing various tests and other tasks. By automating your liquid handling system, you empower your employees to pursue higher-level tasks that add more value to your operation. This includes conducting research that may lead to game-changing discoveries or analyzing existing data for practical purposes.
With higher productivity in the workplace, you increase employee satisfaction. This allows you to retain your current employees or attract the best talents available in the market. Your workforce will be secure and stable enough to ensure business continuity.
Ensure the Safety of Your Employees
Some laboratories involve the handling of dangerous materials. While it is true that robust safety measures are in place and protective equipment available, the risk of contamination or exposure is still there.
Automating the handling of liquids in your laboratory can minimize human exposure to these types of risks. Automated instruments are made of materials that can stand up to harsh chemicals, ensuring the integrity of the equipment, the accuracy of the results, and the safety of your staff.
Another factor to consider when it comes to workplace safety is chronic injury from repetitive movements. Most of the work that occurs in laboratories involves following a set of steps in exactly the same manner, day in and day out. Some tasks might even put the staff in awkward positions. Over time, this could lead to cumulative trauma injuries.
An automated system will protect your staff from repetitive tasks, awkward body postures, and other ergonomic risk factors common in the laboratory. It will reduce workplace injuries, ensuring that your best asset – your workforce, is safe.
