Inventory management in LIMS that contains 100s of stock requires maintaining a list of details to keep the laboratory business running smoothly. However, recording and managing stock-related data manually takes a lot of work.
While some labs utilize paper records to keep track of their inventory stock data, others leverage Excel sheets. Either way, linking relevant data to each is challenging which makes backtracking tough and processing data even tougher. Regardless of the approach, recording and utilizing this data is crucial for smooth operations and preventing systemic leakages.
Often labs are unaware of certain data handling issues and the leakages go untraceable leading to heavy losses on the business front. It’s crucial for labs to recognize and address inventory-related issues to improve end-to-end management systems.
Here’s a list of problems to look at while handling stock management in LIMS for your lab and their feasible solutions –
1. Mismatch of Inventory Stock in Audits
Information mismatching is a common problem that usually occurs when entries are made manually or in Excel. Also, having too many excel makes tallying absolutely tough. More importantly, mapping stock data against consumption or expiry is a challenging task when done manually; especially for a higher volume. Since the chances of mismatching are higher, this not only hampers unused stock but affects inventory cost & expenditures in the long run; leading to unnecessary lab inventory leakage throughout.
Solution: Audit Against System-Generated Reports
Having weekly/monthly audit reports helps. To generate reports, a robust LIMS inventory management system is essential. It records and manages end-to-end data through every inventory stage, from stock entry to consumption, purchases, and expiry.
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2. Lab Inventory Leakage Due to Mishandling of Stock
Mishandling can be stated in terms of two things that result in lab inventory leakage. This suggests stock spoilage due to expiration, as proper recording against expiry dates was not conducted. On the other hand, missing stock may be indicated due to various reasons when no recording or manual recording is made at consumption. This absence of documentation can lead to uncertainties in stock tracking.
Solution: User-wise Stock Management in LIMS
To keep stock details in check, having user-wise stock management details can enable labs to trace leakages efficiently and help them make necessary decisions on how to plug them. Following such an approach, it will also prevent lab inventory leakage in the future. Learn how to tackle the major challenges of lab inventory leakage.
3. User Access Control Limitations Can Hamper Inventory Management in LIMS
Access control is the key to disabling mismanagement. Tallying stock-based quantitative analysis against cost becomes challenging when there is insufficient data available with staff. Such inventory management in LIMS issues impact inventory on the whole causing many other challenges of stock management in LIMS.
Solution: Give Specific Users Access to Specific Areas of Inventory Management Software for Laboratory
Controlling user access to specific inventory areas is crucial for resolving issues. This measure also helps prevent data integrity problems in managing both quantity and cost-effectively. Usually, to meet such challenges of inventory management in LIMS, a lab equipment management system can help as it can provide activity logs against the entire store areas that ease the cross-analysis process for the staff.
4. More Time Spend on Recording Data Than Stock Management in LIMS
Manual entries of day-to-day data for your inventory management software for the laboratory are the leading, potential cause of errors throughout the system. Larger labs have more inventory, leading to increased manual tasks and a higher error rate. If ‘n’ stocks are manually handled, it requires extra time and effort for recording, managing, and processing, affecting decision-making efficiency. This hampers staff productivity over the course of time.
Solution: Use Inventory Management Software for the Laboratory to Manage Everything
Having a LIMS inventory management solution is the key to preventing maximal manual entries rather than focusing your inventory team on decision-making. A system processes daily inventory data into analytics, reports, and statistics, offering a comprehensive understanding. Staff can focus their efforts on studying and utilizing such information to plan better ideas for inventory management for their lab.
To summarise, use inventory management software for the diagnostics lab that streamlines and leverages your end-to-end data about stock, records consumption in real-time, and minimizes errors throughout the cycle. An online LIMS inventory management solution offers dashboards, analytics, useful graphs, and stats and helps you process your day-to-day data easily with the help of reports. As a result, you can learn trends across your inventory purchases, stock management, and consumption and plan a better strategy to prevent leakages at the most for your laboratory business.
