A LIMS laboratory management system manages a laboratory the way a set of numbers manages any operation: by making the week's decisions visible before they are taken. Whether next week's intake fits, whether a test is priced above its cost, whether the controls are eating the bench, whether the freezers will hold the quarter, whether an instrument is due, whether sign-out is keeping up. Managing by feel answers each of those after the fact; managing by numbers answers them on Monday. This page walks the six management decisions a small lab takes every week, the number each one rests on, and the free sheet on this site that works that number from the lab's own inputs with no account.
Managing capacity: the intake decision
Take the work or refer it. The intake and turnaround sheet works the analyst hours the week's samples need, the bench's capacity, the utilisation and the turnaround the load implies. A manager who sees 133% utilisation on Monday morning has a decision to take; one who sees it on Friday has an apology to make. The system's job is to work the figure from the live intake; the sheet works it from five typed figures.
Managing money and evidence: the cost, QC and calibration decisions
Price the test, run the scheme, keep the schedule. The cost per test sheet works the full cost and the margin; the quality control sheet works the controls' share of the bench and their cost per result; the calibration sheet works the year's cost per instrument. ISO/IEC 17025 asks a testing laboratory to keep the evidence behind results; managing by numbers means knowing what that evidence costs and pricing it into the test rather than discovering it in the year-end accounts.
Managing space and sign-out: the storage and review decisions
Buy the freezer or run the disposal; hire the reviewer or shorten the review. The storage sheet works the months until full, the retention sheet works the boxes and the disposals, the results review sheet works the reviewer hours and the rework. The guide this page supports lists what the software must carry to manage all six from one record. Limslane Pro carries it for a small lab at one flat price; the sheets manage by numbers for free.
Questions people ask about lims laboratory management system
What does a LIMS laboratory management system manage?
Capacity and turnaround, cost per test and margin, the QC scheme's share and cost, storage and retention, instrument calibration, and results review, each as a number worked from the record. The free sheets on this site work all six from the lab's own inputs.
How is managing by numbers different from a register?
The register records what happened; the numbers say what will happen if the week goes ahead as booked. The sheets turn Monday's intake into Friday's turnaround before anyone promises a date.
Which sheet should a manager work first each week?
The intake and turnaround sheet, because capacity decides whether the rest of the week's decisions are open at all.