Chromatography Forum

Hi all,

I was curious what everyone is using to track and trend equipment usage.

We are currently growing at a rapid rate and need to start implementing a system to track the usage of instrumentation. I would like to be able to document what equipment is being used to it's maximum capability and what equipment is not utilized. This will make it much easier to justify new purchases as well as R&D on equipment that is not being taken advantage of.

Has anyone organized something simple in Excel for this purpose? I know there are many advanced LIMS systems out there that allow you to do all this at a touch of a button, but being such a small company the justification and resources available to implement such a system are just not there.

Thanks for your help!

We have an Access database that was actually developed to track column usage. One of the reports, however, does give system histories.

For each run, analysts enter:
Analyst ID
Column ID
reference for the run (notebook, LIMS ID, order or other unique item)
System ID
Number of injections
System pressure at atart of run
Cleanout details

We log all columns into the system noting:
ID (assigned)
Manufacturer (Metachem, Ansys, Varian, GL Science giving us fits)
Part No.
Serial No.
Description (Inertsil, Kromasil, Luna etc)
Dimensions
Packing type (C-18, C-8, CN, Phe, SCX...)
Particle Size
Pore size (if available)
Comments ("Don't touch unless you're running cmpd X")

Repairs are runs done w/ column No. 0 (lots of notes, little else).

These forms and tables allow us to report system histories, column histories, user histories , and inventory of columns.

Please take these ideas - but know that I can't send code or copies of the database out. It needs redoing anyway because it's in Access '97 (originally written in Access 2.0). It has held up well and all I've really had to do was impose 4 digit years for Y2K compliance but the company wants all '97 version stuff gone, so I'll have to start over as newer versions of Access will not import the db as is because of several little old macros (not VBA, I guess).