A Guide To Automating Your Laboratory
In many fields, automation is a sure-fire way to increase productivity, consistency and efficiency – whilst also making tasks less strenuous, overcoming skilled worker shortages and increasing demands for services. Laboratories are just one place where this advancement can make seismic changes in what can be achieved.
Within the NHS automation is commonplace - with batch processing of high throughput experiments such as full blood counts, group and screens as well as biochemical assays taking place. Despite this, up to 90% of laboratories around the world currently have no access to automation or have limited access through core labs. Many of these laboratories could replace many time-consuming and repetitive jobs with robotics, accelerating workflow and increasing staff satisfaction.
If you’re looking to automate your laboratory or some part of the workflow, this guide aims to lead you through the process.
Who Could Benefit from Laboratory Automation
Laboratories that want to enhance efficiency by cutting labour costs while increasing their throughput will benefit from introducing automation the most.
Laboratories that run the following processes could particularly benefit from automation:
Cell culturing
Biobanking - collecting and storing samples for research and clinical applications
Elisa
Personalised medicines
Next step sequencing
CRISPR
Research and development labs
Forensic testing
Key Benefits of Laboratory Automation
There are many reasons to automate your laboratories testing and sample processing such as
Increased throughput -
Walk-away time - Staff become free to do other, more meaningful activities in the laboratory, These would include data analysis, other more ‘important’ analysis, experiment design, and writing up results for publication. Some studies in other sectors have found that a cooperative process reduced the human idle time by 85 per cent (1).
Data reproducibility - greater accuracy, human error is reduced.
Health and safety - if you are automating a repetitive task it removes the risk of repetitive strain injuries
Reduced staff numbers - helps overcome the global shortage of highly skilled workers
Expansion - helps meet the future growth needs of your lab
Common Misconceptions
Many laboratories feel that their laboratory isn’t suitable for automation because either their throughput isn’t big enough, they consider the robots to be too expensive or they perceive that they will require technical personnel. However, innovations in the sector by automation companies are helping to overcome these obstacles.
They are now producing smaller systems that can be integrated to do small parts of the workflow and moved around instead of big systems that do the whole process. This makes them easier to move around offering future flexibility. These robots called Cobots (collaborative robots) (2) are lightweight, flexible, easy to program, and safe to work right in a shared space with human employees. Mobile robots are also available.
Innovations are making it less complex to automate assays, incubation, or cold storage
Interfaces are being created that are as simple to understand as smartphone apps, which anyone can understand and which are built to be adaptable
An Overview of the Process
There are many aspects for scientists to consider, in both their laboratory and in the automation market. Before a laboratory can be automated, you need to determine:
the ideal workflow to automate
the type of robot you need
what’s available and from which vendors
testing/optimisation of chosen robotic
implementation of robot
What Processes To Automate?
When you’re just setting out, picking the best processes to automate can be confusing.
In general, the best process to automate first is those dull, strenuous and repetitive tasks that create a bottleneck in the pre-and post-analytical stages. This relieves staff of the boring, mundane tasks and lets them utilise their skill set where it’s most beneficial.
There are thousands of laboratory processes that could be automated, including but not limited to
Decapping and recapping
Pipetting - Liquid handling
Mixing - vortex
Sample inspection
Complexing and delivery of key reagents
Microplate washing
Heating - Incubation
Centrifugation
Cooling - ice bucket
Sample processing inc. storage and retrieval
Serial dilution
PCR set up
Plate replication
High throughput screening
Audit the Workflow
If you know that the laboratory needs automating to help reduce bottlenecks and remove repetitive tasks and free up staff, but you don’t know which process to automate, auditing your current manual process may help you decide which step to prioritise first.
Consider the manual processes from specimen receipt through to reporting the results then consider
How is each step managed?
Where are the biggest bottlenecks right now?
Which is the most time-consuming?
Which requires a lot of precision?
Which is the most repetitive, dull or creates the most human error?
Start by automating the process that is most important to you, the staff and the lab. Picking the right vendor and robot further along in the automation process will ensure that you can automate more processes in the future.
Is Automation Right for Your Lab?
However, just because a process can be automated it has to be right for your lab. You need to consider if it’s needed, do you have the budget, and whether you will see a return on investment.
Opentrons suggest asking these five questions before incorporating automated liquid handling into a laboratory:
The liquid transfers are between 1-1000 µL
One or more steps include time-consuming and/or tedious liquid handling
Your laboratory runs the workflow at least once a week
You can afford a walk-away automation solution
5% precision is enough
Workflow Consultants
If you’re struggling to decide what to automate first and the possibilities available, some vendors offer workflow consultants to help you determine what and how to automate.
Process
If you feel there is a process that’s ripe for automation, creating a process map enables everyone to understand what’s happening in the laboratory and communicate processes among stakeholders.
A process map enables you to:
outline individual steps and every process involved in automating the laboratory until its completion
identify task owners and
detail expected timelines
Project Ownership
The first stage is going to be to identify who in the organisation is going to be affected by automation and who’s going to lead the project.
Educate Staff
It’s important to keep all staff aware of plans and potential changes to laboratory processes. Educating them early, getting their valuable input about processes and detailing the benefits can help ensure those resistant to change get on board with the project.
Outline Objectives
Understanding the drivers for automation will help you choose the correct robot and help determine whether the project has been successful.
Ask and answer these questions before you start researching the robotics available.
why automation is needed
the problems being solved
the benefits as well
what the laboratory hopes to achieve
Creating the Process Map
Break down the whole process of integration step by step. Ensure you include any goals such as the number of specimens to be processed each day.
You can use the following to outline the process of automating your laboratory:
Basic flowcharts
Deployment maps (cross-functional flowcharts)
Detailed process maps containing details around any sub-processes
High-level process maps that include key process elements such as a supplier, input, process, and output.
Which Robot?
Perhaps the most exciting part of the automation process for some will be choosing the technology.
Before or at the same time as approaching vendors, you need to consider what you need your robot to do. These are some things to consider ahead of choosing automation
Technical requirements
How heavy are the loads you will need the robot to carry?
What level of reach, accuracy and repeatability do you require?
Tube sizes to be handled, will you need barcoded tubes
What daily runtime will you require?
Integration
Back-up plan - What will you do if the robot breaks down - how will you process samples on time, can they be stored until the robot is fixed, can you return to manual processes, and do you need a backup robot?
Safety Requirements
Budget - robot and software, plus servicing, repairs, breakdowns (service contracts), software changes for protocol changes, different workflows
Location - Where will you put it? Does it need to go inside a fume cupboard or a clean room?
Questions to ask the vendor:
Maintenance Time - Daily/Weekly/Monthly maintenance time
Footprint / Space
How big much space is needed for the robot - do you have enough space
Would you need an engineer to mount somewhere / new desks
Flexibility/Protocol Development - Does the robot/software offer flexibility for further changes in workflow. Does the software allow for protocol development? Can you tweak the protocol yourself or do you need an engineer to be called out?
Contact Vendors
After you know what you need from your robot it’s time to contact some vendors to find out what solutions are available, if they meet your specifications and how much solutions cost.
Discuss with the vendor your workflow and your specifications so they can determine the best robot/software for your needs. Arrange to have online or in-laboratory viewings of the instruments. When you have a short list, ask potential vendors to do on-site talks that all staff can attend so they are involved in the decision-making process.
When deciding about which robot to choose, look at:
The vendors' history - ask previous clients, read reviews, and ask what support they offer. It can be wise to choose to work with a vendor who does what it takes to keep a laboratory running with minimal downtime as well as offer flexibility in the future.
The cost of the robot, maintenance contracts and protocol changes
Whether the robot offers flexibility for the future - either integration with future automation or changes in workflow. Using a vendor who works with open source software can offer huge flexibility and benefits in the future.
Ultimately there will probably be a balance between getting the best benefits of automation while meeting a budget and getting a return on your investment.
Testing / Optimisation
Before you can start using the chosen robot in your laboratory you will need to test it over a period of time and ensure staff are fully trained to use it.
Before you start testing consider:
The protocols you are going to test.
How long will the test period be?
What are you going to test?
Who will do the testing? Will all staff be involved in the process?
Testing to Integration
Once you have tested the robot, and are ready to integrate the robot into your workflow, you may want to consider some of the following:
Staff training
Competency testing
Standard Operating Procedures
Maintenance logs created - daily, weekly, monthly, annual
Decisions made about who is responsible for maintenance and ensuring the logs are completed.
Last Word
Laboratory automation can make your workflow easier, whilst removing bottlenecks, improving efficiency and easing the pressure on understaffed laboratories with increasing workloads. Automation isn’t just for big laboratories with high throughput and batch
References
1. How Human-Robot Teamwork Will Upend Manufacturing | MIT Technology Review
2. Enabling Process Automation in the Modern Laboratory | Lab Manager
Sources
1. Automating Your Lab | Lab Manager
2. Six Laboratory Tasks Supplanted by Automation | Genting News
3. How To Automate Your Lab, Part 1: Myths and Benefits | Opentrons