How To Use Special Lab Equipment To Make Lab Time More Efficient

By  //  February 10, 2020

In order to achieve a quality result of continued funding and large output, you must prioritize maximizing efficiency in your lab.

In order to achieve a quality result of continued funding and large output, you must prioritize maximizing efficiency in your lab.

It involves the effective organization of human power and resources to help increase scientific value. When all of these are properly maximized, including putting in place the right process, productivity will increase while wasted time and energy will be minimized.

Your lab having the right apparatus not only makes things easier and faster, it also helps in reducing errors and helps you gain the trust of customers.

But aside from the apparatus that could help to make your lab time more efficient, having the right personnel in the right positions is important for maximum effectiveness in the lab.

An example of such tools is the ideal gas law apparatus which helps students to quantitatively and easily look at the various relationships between volume, pressure and Temperature. Investigating the Ideal Gas Law is now simplified by the availability of a special apparatus.

These tools make life easier for students but they are useless without the right personnel in place to make use of the apparatus you have invested in.

It is important that every lab personnel know the scope of their duties and have the right knowledge and experience to perform the tasks without too much additional training.

However, it is also vital that they keep on learning to gain additional knowledge and experience and stay motivated to attain the goals of the lab.

The lab leadership has to ensure that the staff have all that is needed to perform their various roles and keep the morale high. Team cohesiveness and effective communication must also be maintained between the lab team.

Here’s a guide to help you use special lab equipment to improve your lab time efficiency. 

1.   Experiments

Ensure you plan your experiments as far in advance as possible. To achieve this, you will possibly want to break down your project in order of priority.

Ensure you plan your experiments as far in advance as possible. To achieve this, you will possibly want to break down your project in order of priority.

Aside from keeping track of your experiment schedules on a planner or whiteboard, remember that you can aw well use google docs on your android device or sync your calendar to your mobile phone.

2.   Machines

If you rightly map out your experiments, it will help inform you about the next lab machines that will be required for the next experiment.

The planner will also help you to plan how many times a particular lab machine will be needed. It is a brilliant idea to build in additional time with the lab machine in advance, just in case your scheduled experiment fails to go as planned.

3. Optimization of Equipment 

Stocking your lab with the best possible equipment will certainly help to increase your efficiency in the lab and ultimately your productivity.

The quality of your experiment will also be boosted and waste will be limited. Proper maintenance culture must also be kept as instructed by the manufacturer of the lab equipment.

All lab equipment must be kept clean, safe and in good working condition at all times. Proper maintenance culture will stop it from getting spoilt during an experiment and thereby wasting experimental samples and consumables.

Fixed lab equipment must also be placed in positions that it is accessible and easy to use, and all other items required for the experiment are properly situated.

Be careful with buying cheap lab equipment, as they may end up being more expensive with time while limiting its quality and productivity. 

4. Embrace technology

It is important that you digitise your lab, so as to make your lab time more efficient. Upgrade from carrying papers around to saving all documents in an indexed format on the computer.

Digitalization will also help you save time finding useful information already written down. It also reduces the number of papers you consume on a daily basis. Therefore, digitalization will save you effort and time. 

5. Stock Control

Creating a good inventory management system will help make your lab time efficient. Proper stock control will eliminate wastage; make sure there is a constant supply of all required items.

It should also be noted that inventory management does not require large amounts of storage. To generally enhance management of stock you could collaborate with other labs (sharing the same space). With this, you would be able to make bulk purchases and potentially save more money.  

Wrap Up

Keeping notes of all activities In the lab will help make lab time more efficient. It might look like excess stress, but it will be useful in the future, particularly if you do it the proper way.

Keep notes of all of the protocols in detail, so that any lab member could access it and know how to carry out certain procedures, especially the complex ones.

All reagents, timings, samples, and results must be recorded in an organized manner. You may need to revisit it to make findings in the future.

If you carefully follow our well-researched guide and practice it with proper organization, your lab time will be more efficient and wastage will be reduced.

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