The Third EuroALMA Conference
The third EuroALMA Conference was arranged in Berlin on June 12 to 13, 2002. The venue was The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) housed in a majestic building at the spring green Unter der Eichen. The Conference was co-hosted by ALMA and EuroLab.
Conferees
There were 58 conferees from 11 European countries (Germany, The Netherlands, UK, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Latvia, Slovenia, France, and Denmark), Israel, South Africa, and USA, coming from Industry, Governmental Institutions, Academia, and Analytical Equipment Suppliers.
Opening Address
Dr. Adolf Zschunke, Chair of EuroALMA 2002, gave the Opening Address. He welcomed all to the City of Berlin, BAM, and EuroALMA 2002. His expectations for the attendees were opportunity to exchange opinions, learn from the lectures and from each other, and—most important—expand the international network of laboratory managers. He thanked the sponsors and exhibitors for their contribution to a successful EuroALMA Conference.
The Ministerial Director, Dr. Eike Röhling, from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology also addressed the audience. He pointed out Berlin as a one of the most exiting cities with wonderful surroundings, with great cultural offers, and with a high level scientific environment. Today&srquo;s young people are attracted to Berlin due to vast future opportunities.
He said the EuroALMA’s choice of topic was in line with the Federal Government’s focus on Information Society. The government has established programs with defined target in order to develop and increase the use of Information Technology. They are currently developing necessary infrastructure to support, among others, the Analytical Laboratories within industry, and governmental institutions.
Finally, Prof. Dr. Horst Czichos, President of BAM and EuroLab, officially opened EuroALMA 2003. He encouraged the audience to learn about BAM and EuroLab, and make the most out of the visit in Berlin.
Program
The program was divided in two sessions: E-tools and E-business, and Development of Analytical Labs.
Dr. Alexander Debets from N.V. Organon, The Netherlands, gave the first talk on “E-procurement improvement in the analytical laboratory: Efficient, Effective, Electronic?” Procurement is more than buying a new instrument; it is logistics, maintenance, services, etc. Improving the various activities during a procurement process will reduce costs, optimize service levels and value of supply, and improved flexibility of the analytical resources. E-procurement can take over much of the activities during an acquisition process, so the manager may focus more on value adding activities. A benchmarking study shows that e-commerce is increasing; approx. 25 % of purchasing is done electronically by major pharmaceutical companies.
Purchasing will allow a change from operational to a strategic/tactical operations
How far will you let the supplier into your process? Examples for improvement procurement strategies are:
General supplies - outsourcing, use the vendors core competence within logistics, storage.
Equipment management and maintenance - Outsource calibration, troubleshooting etc. The service contract to be tailored according to local needs.
Capital investments - Establish a team consisting of user, purchasing, and controller. The revenues are to use analytical people spend time in what they do best: analysis activities.
“Chemistry databases on the www” was the next topic given by Dr. Roger Kolb from Fiz Chemie, Germany. There is a large number of databases on the www covering Analytical Chemistry, ranging from those that are free but with restricted search features and irregular updates, to the professional hosted by e.g. STN subject to charges. Search guides are not only search machines but also function also as databases for a collection of certain web pages—Google being the most popular search engine. Dr. Kolb went through the process of searching and retrieving information. Different databases and search guides were presented: RSC, STNEasy, ChemGuide; and their function, possibilities, and prices.
This lecture was followed by Dr. Torsten Beyer’s (Dr. Beyer Internet-Beratung, Germany) “Internet as a source of information for Laboratory Managers”. The typical analytical laboratory staff will use internet to search for suppliers, chemical data, regulatory guidelines, scientific publications, new products, job offers, discussion forums, calendar of events, etc. After year’s enthusiasm about the World Wide Web and e-commerce, it was time to study the realistic situation: Possibilities and problems. A study revealed that more of 99 % of all Internet sources are not accessible with the search engines. The best search engines are Google, Alltheweb and Teoma. Thus, there is a need to specialized portals with collection of links to deep web sites; here: Analytical Chemistry. Portals ease fast and effective access to specialized information. Some specific portals are:
- Scirus
links to Universities and authors* Forschungsportal for German Research Institutions - SciCentral
Scientific news, newsletters, buyers guide, career center - LabVelocity
Product information, Life Sciences news, tools, literature - Laboratory network
Buy/Sell online, New and Forums, Jobs, Tools - LabX
Use scientific equipment, Link to suppliers - SpectroscopyNOW
Virtual community for spectroscopic techniques
Training of the Laboratory staff is also key in order to access the Internet in an efficient manner.
“Resource steering by e-tools” was an interesting talk given Dr. Bernhard Ciommer from Lonza AG, Switzerland. The Analytical Laboratory in the R&D organization consists of 45 employees working with 100 concurrent projects. In order to successfully support the projects, the laboratory management decided to introduce Microsoft (MS) Project for planning and allocation of different resources, i.e. people and instrumentation. The tool will help the project manager to define milestones and project tasks. The analytical scientist will distribute the work within the laboratory, and co-ordinate resources. The Analytical Laboratory manager will have an overview of all projects and establish a process for resource management. Dr. Ciommer presented how Lonza AG designed MS-Project to meet their needs. MS-project was successfully implemented: Increase in efficiency, employee satisfaction increased as they have more overview on their work, helps to understand the work in the different departments, easy visualization help teams in their decision process. Lastly, interfacing to e.g. LIMS, SAP, Documentum, Intranet enhance the capability of the laboratory and teams.
Michael Wilson, Central Science Laboratory, UK presented “Internet-enabled LIMS - The link between the customer and the data in a restructured analytical laboratory?” Central Sciences Laboratory do pesticides and veterinary drug residues in foods and commodities. The laboratory uses LIMS to support the different phases in the laboratory process; i.e. sample receipt, preparation, determination, data handling, and reporting. Additionally, they have interfaced LIMS and the Internet to create a bridge between the customers’ needs and the laboratory needs as an on-line submission and reporting tool. They have created RAPPORT that provides a convenient decision tool to customers to help them in choosing which pesticides are likely to be in their sample. The customer will submit sample information and requests into LIMS via Internet. The samples will be allocated and scheduled simultaneously in the Laboratory. The system has link to freight companies as FedEx, and to credit card companies for payment.
LAB-SOLIS (sample on-line information system) is an Internet front-end to the LIMS that provides the customer real-time information on the sample progress, direct access to approved results, and print out reports. The system presented was designed by analysts for analysts, and designed by analysts for the customers.
Benchmarking is a popular process in today’s laboratories. Lyn Faas from Seattle Public Utilities, USA presented “Lessons learned from multi-agency laboratory benchmark study.”
Laboratory managers face increasing pressure to provide cost-effective service, meet higher expectations from customers and deal with increasingly complex work and regulatory requirements. To meet these challenges, nine municipal government laboratories that handled wastewater analysis conducted a benchmarking study. The presentation discussed the benchmarking process and the lessons learned, the best practices gleaned from the data, and ideas utilizing electronic communication tools to facilitate the process. The key findings were within:
- Best practices in the areas of workload management, customer service, staffing strategies and employee development and morale
- Factors associated with increasing efficiency and minimizing cost per test
- Strategies to improve laboratory efficiency, flexibility and cost-effectiveness
- Tools to help laboratories improve customer service and employee moral.
Should I stay or should I go?—Dos and don’ts of knowledge worker leadership" a extremely interesting and inspiring talk given by Dr. Jo Døhl form Amersham Health AS, Norway. The relationship between the employer and employee is continuously changing. Employees increasingly tend to regard their employment as temporary relationship, and the volality in workforce is rising, in particular among the highly educated and skilled. The knowledge workers are shifting their loyalty towards individual leaders, keeping strong focus on opportunities for personal growth and career development. Your role as a leader is to attract, develop, and retain world-class people to your laboratory. Motivational factors, Team roles, Leadership roles, Fighting merger fatigue and People processes were discussed during the presentation as factors that will be decisive for the leaders ability to succeed as leaders of knowledge workers.
Bruno van-Hemelryck from Atofina, France described how the analytical department was involved in finding the cause for a process failure—“Analytical expertise in support to a plant unit incidence: a problem solving case story.” During a process step, mysterious foam emerged. Through MS analysis of foam and knowledge of the different chemical processes in the plant, the laboratory concluded that cross-contamination had occurred. The case story highlights the role of the centralized analytical laboratory where analysts have a good overview of the different steps, and different production processes in a plant. The analysts were in this case useful and efficient partners.
The last speaker was Klaus-Peter Jäckel, BASF AG, Germany who talked on “The analyst caught between classic analytics and the e-world”. Today’s analyst works in an electronic environment where software is used for sample submission, bar-coding for sample disposition, automated analytical methods/robotics, software for data evaluation and report generation. The benefits are obvious: Increased quality, increased speed, and reduced price. Dr. Jäckel exemplified this by presenting an automated NMR Spectroscopy Analysis, and highly data intensive MS applications in Proteomics. It has become evident that the world of electronics neither threatens nor restricts traditional analysis, but rather widens its horizons and opens up new opportunities.
Roundtable Discussions
- Does e-commerce make sense in Analytical Laboratories?
Moderated by Alexander Debets, The Netherlands. - Which qualification should a good laboratory manager have?
Moderated by Claudia Andrle, Atotech Deutschland GmbH, Germany - Websites - Gain and avoidance of usual flaws
Moderated by Tom Lyttle
Social Program
The Conference started with a Pre-conference mixer at the Hotel Steglitz International. A fantastic buffet accompanied by wine and beer.
The Conference dinner was held on the Charlottenburger, a ship sailing on The Spree.
Sponsors
The following companies sponsored the Conference:
- Agilent Technologies
- Metrohm
- Micromass
- Beckman Coulter
- Scientific Software Inc.
- Schimadzu
- Waters
- Neolytica
The Secretariat
Thanks to Roswitha and her administration for the excellent administration of the conference, facilities, and meals.
Closing Remarks
Dr. Adolf Zschunke closed the EuroALMA 2002 Conference. ALMA Conferences have a unique structure with workshops, lectures and round table discussions. He thanked the committee for the hard work, the speakers for the excellent quality of the presentations, the moderators, the chairs, the workshop leaders and technical staff for the professional accomplishment. He finally welcomed to the next EuroALMA conference that will be held in 2004, and wished good luck in each individual manager’s laboratory.