Analytical laboratories have made great strides towards becoming more productive. For example, just 10 years ago, chromatographic runtimes of 1 hour or more were very common. Currently, cycle times (time between successive sample analyses) of 30 seconds or less are relatively common for LC/MS/MS methods. Because of the high-cost of capital equipment, the goal of laboratory personnel should be to achieve duty cycles (i.e. fraction of time spent performing useful analysis relative to total analysis time) that are as close to 100% as possible. Obviously, as the duty cycle improves, the number of samples analyzed per unit time will increase. An increased sample load necessitates a greater reliance on software automation for processing and reviewing the data, otherwise the rate at which data can be collected would exceed an analyst's ability to process the data and make use of it. The goal of any automated data processing methodology should be to minimize the amount of data that a human must review while simultaneously maximizing one's confidence in the automated process. The selection of an appropriate threshold can be subjective, but the interpretation of whether data passed or failed based on the threshold should never be subjective. Most laboratory personnel use a combination of commercial and in-house developed software as part of their software automation strategy. The aim of this presentation is to review some of the challenges and some strategies for meeting them.
Web Page: www.acdlabs.com/products/glob_sol_lab/automation/
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Back to The 37th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (May 22-25, 2005)