Autoscribe has announced that a new instrument booking system module is available for its Matrix Gemini laboratory information management system (Lims).
The system allows for the automatic allocation of sample-tests to the appropriate instrument within constraints, which include the booking of pre-requisite tests, test order, sample availability dates and instrument capacities.
The benefits of employing this module are more efficient use of expensive automated equipment and the ability to better balance the workload to meet testing deadlines.
The instrument plan can be viewed over desktop or browser clients.
Instrument bookings are displayed on a plan, which is colour-coded to represent either an empty instrument, a partially-used instrument, an instrument at capacity or an offline instrument.
The view of the instrument plan can be expanded or compressed so that the user can view a wider or narrower date range.
Instruments are shown on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis.
At each interval where a booking is present the bar either displays the number of sample tests booked and the capacity (for example, 4/10 showing four samples tests booked on an instrument with a capacity of 10) or 'offline' in the event of an instrument being offline for maintenance or calibration.
When an instrument booking is highlighted, a list box gives details of the samples to be run on that instrument at that time point.
Samples can be moved from one instrument booking to an alternative date using a point-and-click system.
