Ensuring Data Integrity: LIMS Data Management in Materials Testing
It can take 10 years to build a company's reputation and as little as 10 seconds for an internal data management flaw to sabotage it.
Along with data security assurance and data accuracy, reliability and consistency are essential for your materials testing laboratory in ensuring regulatory compliance and meeting customer requirements.
In today's digital landscape, where trust is paramount and reputations are fragile, AIS’s end-to-end LIMS data management system provides the ultimate safeguarding of your material testing data, giving you and your customer the peace of mind that you need.
The vast world of materials testing
Those already involved in manufacturing would likely have a grasp of the diverse and multifaceted domain of materials testing. Material testing laboratories are the compliance backbone of our core industries, including construction, healthcare, aerospace, automotive and more.
Material testing laboratories are critical in ensuring the quality, performance, and safety of our materials. Each laboratory is therefore home to an array of vital analytical instruments, specialised resources and much-needed expertise for the extensive evaluation of various products.
One laboratory, for example, could specialise in analysing concrete samples for the construction industry, focusing on the assessment of relative properties such as compressive strength, workability, consistency, density, and durability.
Another material testing lab may specialise in mechanical and corrosion tests for the automotive or aerospace industry, testing for properties such as strength, corrosion resistance, and material composition.
While different labs specialise in different types of testing, their core objectives remain the same: the consistent delivery of timely, reliable, and compliant results. This is not only necessary from a commercial standpoint but also for strict compliance with regulatory standards.
At the heart of these objectives lies impeccable laboratory data management. Material laboratories must ensure that their data is not only accurate, but fully documented, auditable, and strictly confidential with full audit trails.
This is otherwise known as data integrity.
Ensuring data integrity compliance
Data integrity refers to the credibility of your data throughout its entire lifecycle. Due to its significance in laboratory settings, data integrity is firmly entrenched in regulatory guidelines, such as those established by the FDA, EMA, and ICH.
For data integrity to align with regulatory standards, testing laboratory data must be:
- Accurate
- Complete
- Consistent
- Valid
- Secure
- Reliable
Proof that your data meets the above criteria is essential for demonstrating laboratory competency. Working towards recognisable accreditations such as the ISO 17025, ISO 15189 or ISO 27001 provides laboratories with a recognised stamp of approval, enabling them to evidence their commitment to data integrity to their clients.
How can data integrity be affected?
As the demand for analytical testing grows and data output increases, maintaining reliable data management can be a challenge. Data integrity can be impacted by various factors specific to the processes and equipment used, including:
Manual data entry:
Manual data entry, particularly with large sample volumes is likely to lead to undetected, untraceable data issues caused by human error.
Outdated instrument calibration and irregular maintenance:
Without automated equipment monitoring, stakeholders run the risk of undetected, invalid instrumentation results due to overdue instrument calibration.
Data security breaches:
Unauthorised access, data breaches, or malware attacks leave laboratory data vulnerable, with data integrity at significant risk.
Incomplete or non-compliant documentation practices:
Inadequate documentation practices such as incomplete or inconsistent record-keeping, will hinder data traceability and accountability, both vital for regulatory compliance.
When it comes to data integrity assurance, a robust quality management system that addresses data security, automation and top-level laboratory management is fundamentally important for your testing laboratory.
Designed specifically to maintain data consistency, accuracy and reliability throughout the entirety of the materials testing process, LIMS data management serves as an invaluable tool.
Automate workflows with LIMS data management
LIMS data management can significantly enhance your laboratory's data quality and output. The AIS LIMS data management system serves as a one-size-fits-all solution, facilitating multiple facets of your laboratory operations.
This includes its ability to automate data management throughout the entire laboratory workflow. Process tasks from sample registration to results documentation can be accurately and securely completed with minimal human input.
This not only mitigates any chance of human error but allows lab personnel to focus solely on more sophisticated, commercial-level objectives within the laboratory.
Compatible with an extensive array of material tests, our LIMS data reporting module offers the automation that you need. Take a material testing laboratory that offers concrete analysis assays for example, the AIS LIMS could be used to offer a seamless cube testing process by integrating with testing instruments, offering unified data recording, and curating an auditable workflow.
Geotechnology testing laboratories benefit from the AIS data reporting module, which is capable of handling formats such as AGS4, EQuIS, ESdat, and custom Excel worksheets, all of which are ideal for complex templates that involve embedded data and intricate calculations.
Protect your data against security threats
In the ongoing battle against cyber threats, the LIMS data management system emerges as the star player. Robust processes to ensure the safety of data produced in your laboratory are crucial.
Providing defence against potential breaches, the AIS LIMS software features state-of-the-art 64-bit encrypted password security for guaranteed authorised user access to your sample data.
The AIS LIMS system offers customisable security profiles, allowing you to tailor accessibility rights to different users with restrictions to confidential data. Our automatic logout functionality further enhances security by providing an additional layer of data protection.
Closely intertwined with security and data integrity assurance is staff training. To uphold and maintain data integrity, all team members must have the tools to ensure correct LIMS governance and data management practices.
The team at AIS boasts 50 years of experience in different laboratory roles across various industries. This has shaped our comprehensive onboarding service and training offering to ensure that considerations of data security and integrity are at the centre of our LIMS implementation process.
Choose AIS for ultimate data integrity assurance
Whether it's facilitating instrument calibration through an instrument interface, automating data input or reporting procedures, our material testing LIMS serves as the cornerstone of robust data management and security.
In tightly regulated environments, such as material testing laboratories, you can protect the quality, confidentiality and integrity of your data with AIS.
Posted by Beth Taylor on 23-Apr-2024)