Real-time DAS: Global process change impact analysis of implementing an automated data-acquisition-system.
Industry Vertical and the Company:
Among others, a large biotech firm operating several laboratories across three continents and using multiple LIMS applications
The Challenge:
While the advantages of implementing automated data-acquisition-systems (LDAS for laboratories and MDAS for production machines) are intuitively known, most companies are worried about the cost of implementation and the impact of the process-change on stability and reliability of the processes in different locations. These processes are traditionally dependent on intelligent-adaptive manual interventions, i.e.people who read the instrument output and then change the process parameters to ensure uninterrupted and efficient runs.
The customer wanted to understand the global process-change impact in terms disruptions in cost, quality of output and process stability.
Our Approach:
Global survey across locations to understand the impact, followed by a pilot-controlled-experiment to study the impact of process change to gather the necessary data for analysis.
The effects of process change on total-cost, quality of output and process stability were studied and a re-usable business case model was developed.
The Outcome:
The business case conclusively proved that the initial investment involved in DAS implementation can be paid back in less than 2 years. It also recommended that the existing people were retrained to spend more time on data-monitoring and analysis rather than on actual data-gathering and data-entry exercises.
