The UK Food and Environment Agency (Fera) has implemented Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS for use in its laboratory near York, UK. The LIMS is used to manage an archive of more than 50,000 samples, improving efficiencies and productivity across Fera's laboratory.
Fera manages more than 600 research projects, analysing more than 50,000 plant and food samples a year. To establish credibility for its international work, Fera requires robust processes, and it decided that a single LIMS could support this objective instead of a number of smaller bespoke systems or manual processes. The LIMS would enable the organisation to manage all samples on site within a single repository and harmonise its worksheets across its laboratories. In addition, Fera recorded its analytical trend data manually, so it needed a LIMS system that could automate this information in an acceptable format to support internal investigation and reporting functions.
Fera selected Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS for its ease-of-use and its ability to be configured and managed in-house. In addition, it offers the company a flexible and intuitive user interface that makes it easy for laboratory personnel to configure the LIMS to suit individual workflows across the laboratory. Since the implementation of the system, Nautilus LIMS has improved operational efficiency by enabling data to be entered one time only and shared among all departments. In addition, the LIMS has improved the security of data entry and has greatly assisted sample identification and tracking. Using Nautilus, parts of the laboratory are now 95 per cent paperless, and the system reduces lab time by 25-30 per cent because there is no manual recording of data and transcription errors are eliminated.
