Laboratory control

In many companies in recent years, Quality Control has moved nearer to production in process terms and as an organizational unit and is coming to be seen as an integral part of the supply chain. Nevertheless the processes within Quality Control are currently only inadequately interlinked with the supply chain as a whole. It was to eliminate this deficiency that the OR Soft Jänicke GmbH developed laboratory control software as an add-on to SAP® ERP with the following objectives:

• Cost-effective execution of inspections
• Compliance with quantity and deadline requirements
• Reliable and effective capacity planning in the lab
• Logistical evaluation of the performance of the lab

The relevant information on laboratory control is brought together from the different SAP modules and various other additional systems that are present (e.g. LIMS) in the Lab Scheduling solution. This usage as an integration platform is referred to as a cross-application.

Since 2007 the OR Soft "LabScheduling" solution has been an SAP endorsed business solution. The solution is developed according to the SAP standards and includes a functionality not contained in the SAP standard. OR Soft develops and sells an additional SAP endorsed business solution, the Manufacturing Workbench for production planning and control.

The solution works as a modern Advanced Planning Solution with a LiveCache (RAM based) and thus facilitates efficient working for the user, independent of module and system limits.

The laboratory control software supports the achievement of logistical objectives using a large number of functions:

Cost-effective execution of inspections

• Summary of inspections using medium-term planning of laboratories
• List of existing inspections on the basis of production and procurement planning
• Schedule intervals for inspections resulting from the current production and sales planning
• Cost-optimized inspection using bundling of batches

Compliance with quantity and deadline requirements

• Total integration into production and procurement planning
• Analysis and visual display of start and end times
• Sorting and filtering functions
• Exception management in the form of alert displays
• Lower shutdown times in production - better observance of customer order sequencing of the inspection orders, by editing the start time

Capacity planning in the lab

• Visual display of capacity bottlenecks for laboratory staff and resources in and Gantt charts and Cockpit
• Possible actions in case of capacity bottlenecks
• Simulate changes in shift rota
• Simulate overtime and additional personnel capacities
• Rearrange times of inspection orders
• Shift inspection orders to another laboratory (change of lab)
• Processing status of the inspection order, comments display
• Assignment to employees/ workforce planning possible