Best Practices for Lab Inventory Management 

Optimising your laboratory’s inventory management regime is crucial not only for maintaining the flow of everyday operations, but also for upholding research integrity and safety. Thanks to the emergence of smart digital lab solutions, traditional, paper-based inventory logs are swiftly becoming obsolete. 

In this blog, we will highlight:

• Why efficient inventory management is essential
• What lab inventory management involves
• Best practices for lab inventory management
• The benefits of digitalising your lab’s inventory management

Robust inventory management should be the backbone of any successful lab operation. Despite this, many laboratories continue to use outdated methods, like paper-based inventory logging, leading to inefficiencies, waste and potential errors. Cutting-edge digital solutions, like eLabInventory—eLabNext’s flagship inventory management system—are revolutionising the way laboratories manage and track their resources. 

Are you ready to master the art of lab inventory management? Read on for our best practices and top tips to help you achieve optimal organisation, efficiency and cost-saving in your laboratory. 

Why is efficient inventory management essential?

Efficient lab inventory management underpins successful daily lab operations. It gives lab personnel streamlined access to the necessary resources, minimises waste and reduces costs, all while improving overall lab productivity. By standardising inventory infrastructure and processes, labs can maintain research integrity by ensuring consistent organisation, storage and application of reagents and materials.

Maximising the efficiency of inventory management systems is critical for a broad variety of laboratory and clinical settings. From biobanks, to academic research labs, contract research organisations, to commercial laboratories and hospital pathology departments; standardized inventory management is essential for ensuring that lab operations remain robust and reliable.

What does lab inventory management involve?

Lab inventory management encompasses all activities related to procuring, handling, storing and overseeing laboratory materials and equipment. The importance of this process cannot be overstated, as it deals with the availability and quality of the critical components required for scientific operations. 

Typical inventory management processes include tracking stock reagent levels, ensuring correct procurement and overseeing proper usage and storage of sensitive materials. Traditional inventory practices, such as keeping paper-based inventory log books, often fail to meet these challenges effectively due to their segmented and inaccessible nature, along with susceptibility to human error.

Best practices for lab inventory management

Substantial benefits can be achieved by instilling a robust lab inventory management regime. By adopting these best practices, you can not only ensure a smoother operational flow within your lab but also significantly mitigate potential errors, enhance safety compliance and achieve considerable cost efficiencies.

1. Perform regular stock/inventory checks

Regular stock checks maintain the balance of lab inventory, preventing the accumulation of unnecessary items, while identifying those that are expired or nearing expiration. This practice is crucial as expired materials can lead to research disruptions and failed experiments. As such, consistent stock checking can minimise waste, optimise budget utilisation and help maintain quality control in the lab. 

2. Accurate labelling and documentation

Thorough labelling and record-keeping are fundamental for seamless lab operation. When managed poorly, labelling errors can lead to contaminated samples, incorrect usage of materials and other costly mistakes. Proper documentation and labelling can significantly improve research reproducibility, reliability and ultimately maintain the integrity of a laboratory’s work.

3. Ensure proper storage conditions

Storing reagents and samples in optimal conditions is critical for preserving their integrity. This includes adopting good cold storage management practices, such as regular defrosting, shelving rotation and avoiding large empty spaces in fridges. It is vital to monitor the storage timeframes of sensitive materials as they can become unusable due to heat, cold or moisture exposure.

4. Adopt a first-in, first-out policy

Using older stock first reduces the risk of having to discard expired items and helps in managing costs more efficiently. This system ensures that materials are used in the order they were received, reducing waste and ensuring all items are utilised before their expiration date. 

5. Get on board with digital inventory management systems

Digital lab inventory systems offer an off-the-shelf solution for tracking and managing lab inventory. By digitalising your lab’s inventory management, you can effortlessly monitor material usage, inventory levels, expiration dates, instrument maintenance and more. By enabling you to standardise your inventory management regime across the lab, digital systems can substantially reduce human errors, minimise waste and optimise cost utilisation. 

The benefits of digitalising your lab’s inventory management

Digitalisation is by far the most effective way to ensure that your lab’s inventory management remains efficient and sustainable. eLabInventory, our flagship lab inventory management system, stands as a powerful and agile solution designed to simplify lab inventory management. 

With eLabInventory, you can effortlessly manage all aspects of inventory tracking, from procurement and stock checks to storage and usage monitoring. With a robust smart digital system in place, your lab will have a solid foundation for successful research outcomes and streamlined workflows. From small startup labs to large institutions, eLabInventory can be tailored to fit to your specific requirements. 

Let’s take a look at some of the smart digital features that can galvanise your lab inventory management processes:

Visualise your whole inventory

Lab inventory management systems help you digitally visualise your entire lab inventory, making it easy to browse through and locate samples and specimens in your lab storage setup. Offering a centralised platform for all key inventory information, including sample tracking, storage locations, stock levels and procurement information, lab inventory management systems provide all lab staff with access to accurate and up-to-date storage data in real-time.

Streamline procurement processes

Manual procurement of key lab reagents can be tedious, especially when multiple vendors are involved. With the right lab inventory management system in place, you can streamline your procurement procedures by automating purchases when stock levels reach a pre-defined value. This feature helps improve cost efficiency, while reducing potential delays in lab processes. Additionally, having all procurement information stored digitally minimises incorrect ordering due to human error.

Benefit from barcode automation

One of the most significant benefits of digitalising your lab inventory management is the implementation of barcode technology. With digital solutions like eLabInventory, you can quickly generate barcodes for all your lab materials and equipment, streamlining tracking, usage monitoring and facilitating automated reorder processes. Barcode automation significantly reduces the time spent on manual stock checks.

Achieve augmented biobanking

Biobanks, which store biological specimens for research and diagnostic purposes, require robust inventory management. With lab inventory management systems like eLabInventory, biobanks can enhance processes by digitalising sample labelling and tracking, optimal storage conditions, cell passage requirements and more.

What are the benefits of digitalisation for biobanks?

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Customise user roles and permissions

By integrating lab inventory management systems into your lab, you can assign individual user roles and permissions, ensuring that only authorised personnel have access to sensitive information and procurement abilities. This feature helps maintain the integrity of data and minimises the risk of unauthorised use or misplacement of valuable materials.

Reduce instrument downtime  

Lab equipment and instruments are valuable assets that require careful maintenance and management to ensure their longevity. With lab inventory management systems, you can digitally monitor instrument usage, maintenance schedules, and calibration data. This feature helps your lab reduce instrument downtime due to unexpected malfunctions while ensuring optimal performance.

Unlock further features with ELN connectivity 

Aside from functioning as a standalone platform, eLabInventory can also be integrated with our electronic lab notebook (ELN) system, eLabJournal. This integration enables the connection of samples and reagents with study data, facilitating enhanced data connectivity, robust audit trails and easier data retrieval. With ELN connectivity, your lab can achieve improved quality control processes, simplified collaboration and streamlined research workflows.

Discover the power of our proprietary ELN, eLabJournal

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Time to go digital?

The shift towards digital inventory management is not just a trend but a necessary evolution in lab operations. Adopting a system like eLabInventory from eLabNext can lead to substantial improvements in operational efficiency, cost efficiency and research outputs, making it a worthwhile investment for any laboratory striving for scientific excellence.

Take the next step towards optimising your lab’s inventory management!

Explore eLabInventory and all the benefits it can provide for your lab’s operations

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