Problem
An energy technology firm was founded with the lofty goal of one day supplying the electrical grid with around-the-clock renewable energy. In 2023, they had gone from a research-focused firm to breaking ground on a manufacturing plant that would produce their first product.
"As we expanded our lab, machine shop, and R&D operations, we realized that we needed a solution that would enable our people to collaborate and share equipment across our locations," said a Lab Operations Manager.
Teams encountered issues sharing finite lab equipment resources, leading to two major problems:
- Difficulty determining equipment availability, slowing down processes and testing, and
- Lack of accountability when equipment broke, with no clear method for determining the cause.
The company required a system that:
- Allowed teams to reserve necessary equipment,
- Provided visibility into equipment usage, and
- Ensured that team members only used equipment they were trained to operate.
The team explored several solutions before selecting Skedda; however, they opted for Skedda due to its user-friendly interface. They appreciated how easily customizable Skedda was and how simple it was to add and remove Spaces from the platform. Onboarding the team proved simple.
"Onboarding was pretty seamless from an IT perspective, easy to integrate into our SSO and Google Suite, and after a couple of clicks, everybody had an account." - Lab Operations Manager.
The team utilized Skedda’s customizations to tailor the system to meet the company’s requirements.
Solution
Adding and Removing "Spaces"
Shortly after implementing Skedda, the Lab team uploaded dozens of lab equipment items for booking, making them available on a floor plan or in list or calendar views. These included laser cutters, fume hoods, 3D printers, and more. Additionally, the Skedda admin panel enabled them to swiftly add new equipment or deactivate items requiring maintenance or repair.
Booking Conditions to Verify Proper Training
Most of the equipment available for booking required some level of training or verification of the user's proficiency with the complex machinery. The lab utilized Skedda’s User Tags and Booking Conditions to designate training requirements for users. For instance, only users trained to operate a Laser Cutter received the "Laser Cutter" Tag, granting them permission to book these machines.
The lab team employed over 60 Tags to establish a comprehensive set of permissions, ensuring the safe and proper use of lab equipment by team members. "Once users complete the necessary training, the instrument owners notify us, and we can promptly assign the appropriate tags to the user," the lab operations manager explained.
A Record of Use
Skedda’s history log provides a record of the most recent user of a piece of equipment when it breaks or requires maintenance. This minimizes the time the administrative team spends investigating the cause of the issue.
"Even if it’s just behind the scenes, we can determine what happened without having to visit the instrument manufacturer’s site to diagnose the problem," the lap operations manager remarked, emphasizing, "We aim for our instruments to be fully available for shared use, but we also want to establish accountability. Having names linked to reservation blocks provides us with peace of mind and traceability."
Result
The use of Skedda significantly improved the original challenges the firm sought to address. Lab equipment is now utilized in a much more collaborative manner, and user tags ensure that only team members with appropriate training use equipment, reducing repair costs.
Furthermore, Skedda’s insights panel yielded an unexpected benefit: access to usage data enabled informed purchase decisions for new lab equipment.
"We observed that several pieces of equipment were booked up to 90-100% of the time, providing us with compelling evidence to approach finance for additional units," the Lab operations manager explained.
Conversely, when team members requested additional equipment, the lab team could cross-reference Skedda data to ensure that utilization rates justified the purchase.
"I estimate that Skedda’s insights panel has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchasing duplicate instruments."
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