Laboratories have a lot of scientific specifications and standards they must meet in order to do their jobs effectively. A lab requires proper clinical standards, carefully monitored documentation, trained personnel, advanced laboratory systems, and all other lab procedures in place before anything can be done. All of this is to say that it is a lot of work to set up a lab and keep it running for the long haul.
You can ensure that your inventory management software meets those same rigorous standards by using Fishbowl’s manufacturing and warehousing capabilities. Fishbowl is an ideal solution for labs that need meticulous tracking of their inventory and assets, helping to prevent problems and keep everything running smoothly.
Let’s talk about a number of features found in Fishbowl that allow you to perform your tasks effectively in a laboratory setting.
Track inventory and assets
Barcoding ensures a proper count for every reagent, material, tool, or piece of equipment in the lab, removing the need for laborious manual audits and recounts. Fishbowl works perfectly with barcodes. In fact, being cloud-based, it can be accessed on pretty much any smartphone or tablet, to help with scanning items in and out of your lab, perform cycle counts, and a whole lot more. Use Fishbowl to track your inventory and assets and you will see a monumental increase in your data accuracy, giving you real-time visibility into quantities you have in stock and where to find them.
Mobile control
With a mobile tracking device you can check inventory levels, move supplies around from one location to another, monitor part or material information, and even update stock for incoming or outgoing shipments. You can do this with Fishbowl Drive or you can even access the full manufacturing and warehousing features on mobile devices anywhere.
Batch information
All of your necessary manufacturer information is available and easy to access via Fishbowl, from manufacture date to batch number, lot number, and shipping date. If there is any contamination or other reason to recall certain items in your inventory, you can tell exactly when certain products came into your lab together and you can differentiate them from other copies of that item, allowing you to keep good items and simply get rid of the bad ones.
Perishables
For those materials or reagents with critical expiration dates, your inventory software can highlight what and when to cycle and, thus, eliminate product waste. Why is this important? It helps you to keep revolving through your inventory and assets, so none of them go past their expiration date before they can be used. This can save a great deal of money, because you will not wind up with more products than you need, and you will be able to make the most of your resources.
Auto replenish
Automatic purchase orders can be generated for products at reorders points that you get to set. This helps you to maintain stock at ideal levels while cutting time lost due to stockouts or money wasted on excessive inventory. Again, this helps cut down on the number of perishable items that go bad before they can be used. Simply set up automatic reorder points, along with the appropriate number of items that should be reordered to bring them back up to a healthy level, and you will be notified as soon as it is time to reorder.
Data management
Wield the power of data how you see fit. Generate custom reports for production, materials, customers, vendors, as well as worker assignments and project projections. You can even take advantage of an online time clock solution called Fishbowl Time & Labor to estimate labor costs and also calculate actual labor costs. You can then compare the two to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck. Add labor costs to work orders to see an item’s true cost.
Reagents
Generate vendor relationship histories and view potential work orders relative to current inventory with estimated completion dates. The Fishbowl software can also suggest vendor price breaks to maintain low overhead. All of this puts you in control of your operations. You can tell exactly what costs you are incurring as you perform tasks and obtain inventory items. Then you can identify areas where you can improve and shave costs further.
Quality control
With an incorporated scheduler, your software can plot equipment maintenance or replacement, along with any necessary project estimations and dates. By tracking your equipment usage, you can determine when it will likely need maintenance or repairs, allowing you to budge those costs in advance. By properly maintaining critical equipment, you’re more likely to get longer use out of it overtime, saving you from costly replacement due to overuse and damage.
LOCATION MANAGEMENT
All of your inventory, assets, reports and data can be tracked and managed from a single hub, whether your locations are around the world or across the hall. In Fishbowl, you can track inventory at multiple locations and sub-locations. Also, you can monitor trends at each location, so that if one has a higher need for a certain item than another location, you can transfer items between those locations as often as needed. Now that is both convenient and efficient!
Freezer inventory software helps laboratories and other medical and scientific facilities with their inventory and asset tracking, use mobile devices, use tracking criteria, monitor expiration dates, automatically generate purchase orders, generate custom reports, work with vendors, maintain quality control, and create multiple locations. As a result, it frees up a lot of resources.