In order to understand what is going on in your laboratory, you need to understand exactly what needs to be going on in order for it to be efficient. It isn’t enough to have a quality syringe pump or the proper immersion coolers or connections to the best scientific equipment suppliers.

When it comes to efficiency in a laboratory, there are three levels that dictate it: people, process, and equipment. When you have all three of these things in place, you can then understand how a lab is either doing all it can do to work smoothly or what you need to pay attention to so that it will.

People

Like any great enterprise, a quality lab is nothing without the people who work in it. Your scientists might come from all over the world, doing what they know how to do best in an effort to try and make the world a better place for everyone to live in. If you create a lab in which your scientists can work smarter and not harder, you are going to increase more than just efficiency; you will increase productivity, as well.

Process

You might tend to relate increased efficiency with shortcuts. That is not a good model. Cutting a syringe pump here or there from an equipment order will not be a good solution. Efficiency is simply managing time and resources effectively. To run a laboratory effectively is to have effective project management skills. You must balance scope, cost, and time. If you can put tools in place to get that done, you are on your way to the type of lab you desire.

Equipment

In the United States, the commercial and diagnostic laboratory industry consists of somewhere in the neighborhood of 13,500 establishments. They are stocked with different types of equipment that enable their scientists to do the jobs they need to do. A syringe pump here and a new era pump system there could be the difference between a breakthrough and continuing at the status quo.

In addition, safety equipment in place at the right places cannot be overstated as something extremely important to an efficient and effective laboratory. For example, there are four types of chemical fume hoods: Conventional hoods, Bypass Fume Hoods, Auxiliary Fume Hoods, and Specialty Hoods. Knowing which of these hoods your lab will need and how to get them installed properly will be important to start with and for as long as your lab is in operation.

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