Companies working across the battery manufacture value chain, as well as major automotive OEMs, need to navigate real and constant production challenges and risk. Uppermost is the need to maximise output with consistently high-quality products, economically (i.e. keeping scrap rate at a minimum), and with expedience.
And when these challenges keep coming, one way to galvanise quality assurance—to respond strongly with best-in-class processes and defend against manufacturing production risk and the dreaded recall—is to streamline processes, connect systems, and implement continual procedural improvements.
Another is to integrate a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) in the manufacturing production process.
A LIMS is to the laboratory as MES is to production
We know that a Manufacturing Execution System is already the ubiquitous staple of manufacturing and process industries. Indeed, across the battery industry, an MES, coupled with a QM module, is used to act as a LIMS, often in place of a LIMS.
According to Transport & Environment (T&E)1 68% of potential battery production capacity in Europe (1.2 TWh) today is at risk of being delayed, scaled down in terms of planned capacity, or even not realized at all. This is clearly manifested by a larger challenge in the industry about the ability to scale-up battery production and improve approval processes. At a granular level it does signal the status quo will not provide the battery companies across the value chain with competitive edge. In an industry filled with risk, a LIMS solution represents a quality investment.
At its foundation, LIMS software centers on capturing and managing as much information about a sample throughout its lifecycle as is possible. At any one point in the battery production process, a QC Analyst or Laboratory Manager will have to juggle with multiple samples, each at varying points in their lifecycles. Unlike the MES, a LIMS keeps all the laboratory ‘plates spinning’.
A LIMS captures a variety of meta data as a sample progresses through its lifecycle. This includes the receipt of the sample (and associated customer information), tracking and scheduling through its assigned workflow, and any quality control processing.
As a matter of course, the LIMS will also capture calibration data for any equipment used, or the location, storage and expiration of any reagents used during testing. It also captures the qualifications of the analyst who performed the testing, and importantly the compliance inspection and approval of the sample for reporting or further analysis.
Besides managing the scheduling of tests, censoring of instrument calibration and preventative maintenance, and the management of stock including standards and reagents, the LIMS is also used to automatically check results against set specifications. This means a LIMS can handle the review, approval, and reporting on, and distribution of, results of tests performed against the sample. The MES cannot achieve this.
These are the base functions that define any LIMS. In stark contrast, the same rich laboratory data is not captured by the MES.
The MES’s function is to survey the management of the production process. This will typically include gathering data on production scheduling, the dispatch and execution of production orders, the production performance (including work in progress, status of equipment, material lot information, effectiveness of equipment), as well as production track and trace.
The measurement of production, and the way the battery goes through the production value chain, is evidently then not the same measurement of the materiality—and therein its traceability—that comprises the battery, and ultimately affects the quality of its readiness to comply, to go to, and to stay in market.
From an international standards perspective i.e. ANSI/ISA-95, these two functional systems are also not considered to be the same. In the context of battery manufacturing standards, an MES simply will not cover sample quality, sample integrity or sample compliance (e.g. ISO 17025).
Capabilities of LIMS are evolving
Customers are demanding more from technology, so battery technology is evolving. At the same time LIMS are also advancing and represent a very capable software solution.
LIMS has numerous additional functions, which again trump the MES. It can manage and assign chain of custody, and importantly show an audit trail for the traceability of a sample. It can process and convert data into certain document formats, as well as create and schedule reports in a specific format. It can read and extract information from a barcode. It can handle CRM and demographic information for client communications; and like an MES, it can also organize work schedules, workload assignments, employee demographic information, training needs and financial information.
Missing in action
There is a sway of elemental functionality missing in the MES. For example, an MES is unable to manage sample work instruction and test method integration; to create multi-level rounding rules compliant with test methods; it struggles with standardized instrument integration; it typically doesn’t include an easy-to-use scheduler to capture the Service Level Agreement between the laboratory and the customer; it doesn’t provide data dashboards with standardized efficiency tools (such as time per test, response-times, etc.); it cannot cope with ad-hoc samples and non-routine laboratory projects; it cannot oversee instrument performance (i.e. when to calibrate, when to perform maintenance, etc); it cannot supply Statistical Quality Control, or Analytical Quality Control charting to meet ASTM-D6299 for laboratory processes. Nor does it meet the regulatory requirements of ISO 17025, or the Health, Safety and Environmental requirements for laboratory reagents and materials.
Plug the gaps with a LIMS
As proven technology, Thermo Scientific™ SampleManager™ LIMS software plugs the gaps of the MES, and drives quality control through all stages of production. It’s designed to improve lab efficiency, speed turnaround time, and enable compliance to industry standards, so bringing numerous benefits to companies competing in the extraction of and processing of raw materials, cell manufacture, or the second life and recycling stages of the battery manufacture value chain.
Integrating LIMS with an MES
Furthermore, a LIMS can be easily connected to the majority of lab instrumentation. Importantly, (and battery manufacturers please take note) the LIMS can also be integrated with other systems such as an MES, and an ERP: the integration of a LIMS in the battery manufacturing process means the production is efficient and interminably strengthened. And because of its ability to integrate, paper processes are removed, eliminating the need for the analyst to manually record data—a cumbersome process—and therefore potential for human error. Quality is also reassuringly central in the LIMS solution. Again, from the perspective of a company operating in the battery industry value chain, this enables a better standardization between the company’s different sites, as LIMS will indirectly standardize working practises.
And when working in sync with an MES, to feed critical data back into production, a LIMS keeps your quality control one step beyond, driving consistency and charging continuous product improvements.
Learn more about making a Laboratory Information Management System an essential component of the battery manufacturing QA/QC lab here: www.thermofisher.com/batterylims.
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