Positioning laboratory automation for today's dynamic climate

摘要

Laboratory automation has existed and matured at Eli Lilly andCompany for well over a decade. The author's section serves as adeveloper of laboratory automation systems for customers withinLilly and embodies ‘robotic friendly’ laboratories with highlytechnical and experienced personnel.With several systems showing signs of age, second generation‘smart systems’ have been developed and delivered during the lastthree years. These systems were built with an ideology differentfrom previous systems. Upon their delivery, the ‘smart systems’met the customer's functional requirements but the overall acceptanceof this ideology is still being debated due to the perception of failure.Much of this perception can be attributed to the delivery of a systemheavily dependent on system maintenance, something totallyunexpected by the customer. This paper discusses the ideology ofa‘smart systems’ and the results following implementation. Theevents that led to the review and subsequent departure of the ‘smartsystems’ ideology are also described.