| By :
Tracy Thomas
Storage management is one of the more varied items encountered in Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) projects. Laboratories often have diverse needs for allocating items like samples and plates to storage locations, and this responsibility usually falls on their LIMS solution. Historically, the storage solutions offered have been inadequate to answer the laboratory needs. However, newer versions of LIMS software use a very flexible framework that address many of the storage requirements that have been encountered since the introduction of this software. It is important to note that this storage management implementation approach can be easily adapted to each customer's needs. This is because newer LIMS systems use a flexible method to represent all possible storage types and levels. A data field is used to represent the storage units' type thereby distinguishing each level of storage. Therefore, storage hierarchies can be defined of any type such as those displayed below: - Storage Unit Room - Storage Unit Freezer - Storage Unit Shelf - Storage Unit Rack - Storage Unit Box -- Samples Or: - Storage Unit Nitrogen Vat - Storage Unit Shelf - Storage Unit Rack -- Samples As a result of this flexible storage hierarchy in combination with user definable storage unit types, newer versions of LIMS can handle most any type of storage arrangement. Each storage item can be configured to match its true configuration, such as a freezer having 4 shelves and a specific shelf having 10 racks. Box sizes are also configurable to proper row and width dimensions such as 9x9. The second and equally important aspect of this implementation is that the user only needs to assign the unique ID of the specific storage item (e.g. the box ID) that it is to be stored in the data record (e.g. the sample), and the LIMS will automatically fill in the rest of the hierarchy for the user. As part of this process, the LIMS will verify that the space is not already occupied. Finally, this system is user-friendly when the customer must make changes to sample storage locations. This is because the storage system is displayed on the screen as a box grid. With this design, if a sample must be moved to a new location, the user can click and drag the item to the new position. The system will automatically update the hierarchical record to reflect the new location after the move. This unique approach for handling sample storage provides an accurate and readily configurable hierarchical system that is not only flexible but also minimizes the user's management effort. By doing so, it eliminates laboratory sample storage issues previously encountered with LIMS software.
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