IMPACT OF LABORATORY AUTOMATION AND INFORMATICS AT MUFULIRA ANALYTICAL LABORATORIES

Mopani Copper Mines has been experiencing late process of result reporting\r\nat its Analytical Laboratory. The delay in reporting results has been attributed\r\nto increased number of samples and analyses that are required within standard\r\nlaboratory practices. Because Analytical Laboratories desire to enhance their\r\nperformance as a way of increasing operational capacity, reduce operational\r\ncosts, and improve cash flow, technological trends which elevate experimental\r\ndata quality and reduce laboratory turnaround times were adapted at Mufulira\r\nAnalytical Services Department. The study was undertaken to assess the impact\r\nof laboratory automation and informatics on the cost of operations, production\r\noutput and quality of operations. Primary and secondary data was collected\r\nand analysed on a sample population size that included employees from the\r\nAnalytical Services Department and client departments.\r\nThe research study made the following conclusions:\r\n(i) Automation and Informatics has resulted in improvement on the performance\r\nof operations of analytical laboratory, with the increase of 5.03 per cent on the\r\nnumber of samples analysed, cumulating to 1,344 number of samples in reference\r\nto the months of July and August in the base year of 2013.\r\n(ii) There was a reduction in costs as a result of automation and informatics as\r\nevidenced on savings of 32.83 per cent on overtime hours, which cumulated to\r\n1,331.34 hours saved, with reference to the base year 2013.\r\n(iii) Automation and informatics has resulted in reduction of errors and an\r\nimprovement in the performance quality of the analytical laboratory.\r\n(iv) Post-automation and informatics was better than pre-automation and\r\ninformatics.\r\nIn order to reduce costs, increase cash flow and improve performance, the study\r\nrecommended that Mufulira Analytical Services Department should scale up\r\nautomation of its laboratory processes.