If you’ve ever had to manage a laboratory, you’ll know that the two most challenging elements that need close control are time and space. The average lab will always struggle with space constraints, as one can never have enough space for good science. On top of ensuring that tight budgets, clashing personalities, and time constraints do not negatively impact the quality of the work being done in the laboratory, lab managers must also try and make the best and most efficient use of the space available to them.
By doing so, they will ensure that the lab’s workflow, processes, and output are of the highest quality and volume possible. Here are a few tips detailing how a lab manager can achieve optimal levels of utility from limited laboratory spaces.
Digitize Your Laboratory Records
Every lab needs to keep voluminous and highly detailed records to keep track of their work, progress, and insights. As a result of this need, many labs find themselves holding onto vast amounts of documents filling up filing cabinets, storage spaces, shelves, and so on. By converting your records into digital formats, you can significantly reduce the amount of space taken up by your records. What might take up an entire storage room can fit into a single flash drive.
The best way to convert your paper-based storage models into computer-friendly formats is through LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems), ELNs (Electronic Lab Notebooks), Cloud-Based Services, and other protocols. There are reliable digitization systems that will enhance the security of your data, make data analysis much easier, enhance search query efficiency, and make your life easier in general.
Implement Smart Sharing Practices
Any environment where scientific endeavors take place must be optimized for collaborative work. Science doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so lab managers need to ensure that their spaces are optimized for sharing. By setting up an open layout, for example, you can eliminate the need for multiple sets of equipment, tools, and equipment. A properly set up laboratory will allow those working there to share centrifuges, pipettes, and vortexes.
Specialized common-use equipment and tools can be used or shared between separate laboratories. These might include items such as spectrophotometers, nano drops, bioinventory storage solutions, and so on, which eliminates or mitigates the need for each laboratory to dedicate space for them. This, of course, will require that strong communication and collaborative lines exist between the labs involved.
Observe Thorough Maintenance and Cleaning
Just like a home, when you allow clutter and disorganization to creep into your laboratory, you will quickly run out of the space you need to carry out your work effectively. You will quickly find yourself in trouble if you put off regular cleaning exercises. The best course of action for lab managers is to ensure that workspaces and equipment are cleaned and maintained after each shift. Establishing this habit is the most efficient way of staying on top of your cleaning.
Depending on the scale of your operation, how busy your lab is, and what kind of work you’re undertaking, it might be a good idea to hire a cleaning service with experience working in laboratories to handle this aspect of your operations. While this type of service might be relatively more expensive than regular cleaning services, they might prove to be worth it in terms of increased convenience, output, and the quality of your lab’s results.
Think Vertically
In the world of architecture and city planning, it is well-known that when you start running out of space on the ground, the solution is to start building upwards. Vertical storage is the most elegant solution in circumstances where the amount of square footage you have on the ground level is insufficient for your needs. There are two central systems of storage used in typical laboratories. The former category includes tables, cabinets, optical tables, and so on, while the latter includes overhead shelves, laser shelves, and such.
Vertical shelves and overhead shelves can make optimal use of the space you have in your laboratory. A Neuroscience Biologist, for example, will need suitable space to store away the electronic equipment and amplifiers they need to carry out their duties. The best way to carry this out will be to find a solution that minimizes the length of the cables involved � This is best done with an overhead storage rack. If you need storage space for documents, small implements, miscellaneous tools, and so on, vertical shelves reaching up to your ceiling rather than squat cabinets sitting on your floor will be a more effective solution.
Invest in New Technologies
Ensuring that the space and resources you have in the laboratory are adequate for your needs involves more than making sure you are comfortable today. A good laboratory manager will make plans for what they might need beyond their immediate requirements. While we understand that balancing all the budgeting, manpower, and space constraints might be challenging, it’s important to remember that new technologies and solutions are evolving daily.
When you source new equipment for your laboratory, be sure that aside from their effectiveness, you consider how much space they take up, how mobile they are, how much they will cost to maintain, and the return you can expect to get from investing the. These considerations mean that you need to consider your equipment suppliers very carefully.
Final Thoughts
The work of a lab manager is by no means an easy one. Juggling all the various factors that need consideration to ensure that the laboratory’s operations run smoothly requires high levels of intelligence, foresight, and organization. The good news is that there are various ways in which a manager can optimize the space available to them and derive the best possible results from it.
GenVault is a laboratory storage supply company with many years of experience providing solutions to laboratories across the nation and beyond. If you’re wondering where to find high-quality solutions for your budgeting and space problems, they will be your safest bet.
