Smarter Resource Scheduling – Agilex Biolabs Case Study

Agilex Biolabs is a leader in bioanalytical testing, with over 20 years experience in regulated bioanalysis and clinical trial support.

Results:

 25% Machine utilisation
 5x Faster schedule creation
Seamless schedule adjustments
Prioritisation of urgent runs
Production of final reports

Case Scenario

With its business growing, Agilex needs to ensure each LCMS machine is fully utilised in order to maximise their return on investment. However improving utilisation is difficult. Every run has different requirements, so Agilex must make many complex decisions about how to schedule them together efficiently. One of the other big challenges with LCMS scheduling is last-minute changes. New runs, staff changes, or machine breakdowns are all reasons the weekly schedule often needs to be quickly replanned.

The Solution 

Using Daitum, Agilex now have a bespoke tool that optimises the utilisation of its LCMS machines. Based on current business processes, Daitum’s team created a standardised data template and a master data file. Producing a schedule is now as simple as importing the completed template, updating the master data and clicking ‘optimise’. The optimised schedule is displayed in Google Chrome, using a layout that is very familiar to an Excel spreadsheet. The familiar look lets the planning team easily review and tweak the schedule as needed. The tool now creates both the weekly schedule and the financial reports as spreadsheets for easy distribution within Agilex. The tool now also offers access to ‘dynamic re-optimisation’ to respond to any last-minute changes. The changes are captured and an optimised schedule is created in minutes not hours.

The Results

The optimisation tool has had an immediate positive impact on Agilex’s operations. Schedules are created five times faster than previously and adjustments to the schedules are now seamless. In addition LCMS machine utilisation has improved by 25 percent.

Will Walker, Laboratory Operations Manager, said, “Daitum’s optimisation tool has opened up resourcing options we never knew existed, helping us speed up our operations significantly.” He added, “We have de-coupled extractions from injections, greatly increasing our throughput and allowing us to prioritise the urgent work, while ensuring the less time critical runs are also conducted”. Jason Valentine, CEO of Agilex Biolabs, expressed his enjoyment of the reporting functionality, saying “Being able to dynamically adjust the money earnt from each run and report that to the board has meant our updating processes have been streamlined.”

Why Daitum

At Daitum, we understand that making good operational decisions is hard. And none are harder than rostering. With Daitum Rostering you will spend less time rostering plus deliver a roster that better meets your organisation’s needs.

“Daitum’s optimisation tool has opened up resourcing options we never knew existed, helping us speed up our operations significantly.”

Will Walker, Laboratory Operations Manager