Advanced Analytics in The Lab: How AI-Powered Analytics Transforms LIMS Data into Valuable, Action-Ready Insights

The Digital Lab is Here

When modern LIMS software overtook traditional paper-based record-keeping in the lab, operations in every industry improved. Automated data collection drove efficiencies at the bench. Cloud solutions accelerated knowledge-sharing between partners. Built-in security and permission features enhanced data integrity. There’s hardly a lab in operation right now that hasn’t gained from this leap towards digital transformation.
That was then. Today, forward-thinking lab managers are taking the next big leap, this time from data collection to data science.

到目前为止，实验室操作人员与其数据的关系通常由预置的LIMS仪表板和报告规定。数据本身通常是非结构化的，并且与其他企业系统隔离，不总是可访问的，至少不需要熟练的数据建模练习。随着人工智能和机器学习进入实验室，这种情况正在改变。使用数据科学算法，这些先进的工具快速处理所有结构化和非结构化LIMS数据，将其与外部企业数据集成，并为实验室经理和分析人员提供有价值的见解和及时、有意义的建议。
In other words, historic LIMS data is no longer locked away; it’s put to work for the benefit of the whole enterprise, helping to drive deeper statistical analysis, advanced insights, and dynamic business intelligence.
Using this advanced technology to transform LIMS data into action is already a feature of modern, fast-moving labs across all industries, and as you’ll see in the analytics opportunities described in this paper, it’s going to have an enormous impact. Is your lab ready?

Advanced Analytics: The What, The How, The Why Now

Modern instrumentation, new models of public/private partnership, and evolving industry standards have made mass data collection both easy and indispensable. These advances have also created a scenario in which researchers and analysts must consider a huge (and growing) number of variables before making any decision.

似乎所有这些数据还不够，再加上不断缩短的时间线带来的挑战。制药行业开发COVID-19疫苗的竞赛表明，当不同的合作伙伴合作缩小研究生命周期时，是可能的，现在世界已经尝到了“曲速”，没有回天路了。简而言之，那些能在未来五年生存下来的公司，是那些学会使用他们的数据——新的和历史的，实验室特有的和企业范围的数据——以更快地发展的公司。

Enter advanced analytics

实验室专用的、可用于lims的高级分析解决方案解决了数据量和速度的挑战。它为实验室专业人员提供了一个360度的视角来了解他们的实验室和他们的企业，帮助从数据中创造意义，以确定下一步的最佳行动。这种可见性不仅提高了进入市场的速度，而且还降低了成本，支持实验室内部和整个公司的智能决策。

Understanding Advanced Analytics

Advanced - the Vehicle

实验室专用的高级分析解决方案能够消化来自多个来源的大量结构化和非结构化数据。在高级人工智能的支持下，该解决方案应用统计和机器学习算法，从数据中获取意义，识别模式、行为、风险因素和未开发的机会。

这些高级功能只有在可用的情况下才有用。最好的高级分析解决方案与现有的LIMS环境以及其他数据源集成，邀请所有能力的操作人员直接与数据交互。通过使用熟悉的指向-点击界面，用户可以深入到LIMS工作流程，并轻松地返回到大图可视化。这就是“高级”的样子，包装在一个用户友好的包里。

Analytics - the Destination

The data that fuels AI and machine learning in the lab comes from the LIMS (sample and environmental data, data from connected instruments, etc.) and from the enterprise (ERP and MEP systems, etc.).
The advanced analytics solution is designed to turn that data into business and statistical intelligence, providing operators with individualised and on-demand charts, graphs, reports, and dashboards to help them identify and optimise next steps.
This drives the science of just-in-time decision-making in the lab, using both historic and real-time data to predict outcomes, prevent failures, and liberate the secrets and solutions locked inside all of that valuable LIMS data.

这意味着什么?

Advanced analytics in the lab is the key to:
A broader scope of research and/or testing. Use advanced analytics to mine historic LIMS data and collaborate with other relevant data sources, leading to meaningful, relevant insights.
Improved speed to market. A lab-specific analytics solution removes traditional barriers to LIMS data, accelerating research and enabling streamlined testing.
A more profitable lab. By teaching the advanced analytics solution to recognise untapped opportunities and flag risks, labs can optimise and accelerate their workflow.

Advanced Analytics Opportunity: The Research Lab

A Perfume Manufacturer’s R&D Lab
Their challenge: Developing a single new scent means manually testing a dozen or more fragrance combinations, burning through valuable time and material resources with no guarantee of a successful outcome.
Advanced analytics multiplies their options while shortening their innovation lifecycle
Using criteria established at the bench, researchers teach their advanced analytics solution to identify potential candidates from years of sample data preserved in their LIMS.
结果是:数据科学支持的研究:研究人员只测试他们的高级分析解决方案推荐的四种组合——然而他们的研究范围延伸到数以万计的数据点，远远超过他们在板凳上实时生成的数据点。这可以改善每个项目的结果。
An automated innovation lifecycle: With their advanced analytics solution igniting their progress from the start, researchers arrive at the winning scent in record time. Repeated across every research project, this translates to a notable increase in the lab’s efficiency and, correspondingly, its profitability.

为什么选择特定于实验室的高级分析而不是企业级解决方案?

Smooth two-way integration

With an analytics solution designed for the lab, users can toggle between higher-level visualisations and discrete LIMS data with ease. For example, if a user spots an anomaly in the analytics dashboard, she can dive into the data for a self-service query, then easily click back to the dashboard. It all happens smoothly, within a familiar interface.

Analytics that knows the lab

The right lab-based analytics solution will feature hundreds or thousands of statistical and machine learning algorithms built for lab-specific use cases, giving operators the tools they need to find meaningful insights without IT support.

Better security

基于实验室的分析解决方案可以继承LIMS中已经内置的安全性、权限和数据完整性特性，确保访问得到适当控制，数据保持兼容和安全。

Advanced Analytics Opportunity: The Manufacturing Quality Lab

精品酿酒厂的质量检测实验室
Their challenge: While a batch of wine ferments, it ties up valuable cask capacity. This is a gamble for the vintner, who must wait an average of two years for each batch to complete its processing lifecycle before knowing, for sure, if that batch was worth the real estate it occupied.
Advanced analytics turns a gamble into a sure bet
他们的LIMS软件存储了五年的产品数据。该公司使用先进的分析解决方案来寻找数据中的模式，分离出影响产品质量的特定变量。
The solution’s AI engine learns from those variables and predicts which current batches will meet the quality threshold.
结果:优化资源规划:根据LIMS数据的统计分析，只有最有可能交付质量的葡萄酒，才发酵到成熟。这确保了有价值的桶容量的战略配置，提高了公司的整体效率和吞吐量。

Advanced Analytics Opportunity: The Contract Testing Lab

A Contract Services Lab Specialising in Pharmaceutical Testing
他们的挑战是:这个实验室已经满负荷运转，在不影响他们的测试计划的情况下努力进行日常维护。
Advanced analytics helps them to reduce downtime and predict surges in demand.
通过在LIMS内部工作的先进分析解决方案，该实验室团队可以将他们的策略从“例行维护”转变为“规范性和预防性维护”。

该解决方案挖掘现有的LIMS数据(以及仪器软件、数据库和日志文件)，根据紧急情况推荐特定的维护任务。这些任务可以基于仪器的历史性能、计划的样品数量、使用仪器的操作人员、涉及的消耗品或其他关键因素。先进的分析解决方案还使用LIMS数据来预测需求，并帮助实验室经理围绕即将到来的项目安排维护计划，进一步实现动态和主动的“正常运行时间策略”。
The result: Improved operational readiness: Rather than remove an instrument from performance based on a static maintenance schedule, lab operators can focus their maintenance strategy only on areas that actually need attention. Not only does this help them to optimise the lab schedule, it also reduces unexpected downtime by alerting lab officials to potential performance issues before they arise.

Conclusion

In order to move as fast as today’s market demands, lab managers need a 360-degree view. They need to see into the past to mine insights from historic data. They need to use those insights to look into the future, identifying potential risks and locking in on new opportunities. They also need a clear view of the reality inside their lab and across the enterprise, each integrated with the other in an accurate and nuanced picture of whole business health.
That’s what it means to have a 360-degree view. Past and future, lab-specific and enterprise-wide. To gain that view, labs need to put their LIMS data to work, powering an advanced analytics solution that’s capable of delivering statistical and business analysis on demand. It’s the next wave of transformation for the digital lab, and LabVantage is ready to help you ride that wave all the way to the top of your market.
LabVantage Analytics, our full-featured, self-service advanced analytics solution, is designed to integrate seamlessly with your LabVantage LIMS. It comes with more than 520 visualisation widgets and over 1,000 AI algorithms, giving lab users the flexibility they need to explore, analyse, and visualise their data in personalised and meaningful ways.