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Working Smarter by Automating Processes


Thanks to the housing crisis and the swings in the stock market, the economy is certainly on everyone's mind, not only how it pertains to us as individuals but also how it affects the companies we work for and our particular niche industries within the larger analytical chemistry marketplace.

While the situation is bad, it is not dire. Industry experts are emphatic that this is not another Great Depression despite the recent calamitous events. "For the average person, it hasn't had an impact," states Gregg Easterbrook, a Brookings Institution fellow in government and economic studies. "Goods and services are plentiful; the price of gas is falling; ATMs are working. People are not losing jobs left and right." Easterbrook points out that the current situation is a financial panic, not an economic collapse (1).

Other experts point out that the problems in the financial sector have not been transmitted to the rest of the economy anywhere near the extent that occurred during the Depression. While there are similarities, there are also a number of key differences. For instance, while unemployment is expected to continue to drop, it is not expected to go lower than 7 to 8 percent. In addition -- and this is of most interest to business -- the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be in positive territory this year and next according to forecasters polled by the National Association for Business Economics, who predict 1.8 percent growth this year and 1.6 percent in 2009 (2). The classic definition of a depression is an annual decline in GDP of 10 percent or more. So the coming months will be rough, but far from devastating.

It is reasonable to expect a certain amount of corporate belt-tightening to take place. Businesses are taking a very close look at how and where they are spending money, particularly personnel costs. The bottom line is that staff need to find ways to work smarter not harder.

There aren't more hours in the day, but corporations will need to ensure that those hours -- and the people working those hours -- are more productive than ever. Productivity gains can be achieved by automating activities and processes that have not yet been and can be automated. Thus keeping laboratory data on electronic spreadsheets will no longer be feasible and more or better software and solutions such as LIMS and Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) will need to be implemented to make the lab professional more productive.

Is your job at stake? Perhaps. It's important to note, however, that most companies are running extremely lean as a result of the layoffs from the last recession. In addition, the issue of cost justifying a software purchase by enabling staff to perform more work in less time does not typically result in reducing the staff on hand and requiring the rest of the lab personnel to pick up the workload. That's just working harder without actually improving the way the work is performed.
Instead, when processes are optimized the time that has just been saved with the new software is almost immediately filled with strategic tasks that help move the organization forward with the development of new revenue-generating products. Hence the software now enables staff to work smarter by removing obstacles that made them work harder without having as much to show for it.

What happens when tactical tasks (and the people that perform them) are removed from the equation entirely? Even in a time of difficulty, there is always opportunity. Organizations in the analytical chemistry industry may well decide that layoffs are the only answer and that tasks must be outsourced. However, this means opportunity for the businesses that perform those outsourced tasks.

Outsourced tasks can include not just sample analyses and production activities, but also Information Technology (IT). This may sound a bit silly since many IT tasks have been outsourced for quite some time, but there are still organizations writing in-house programs when commercial solutions are readily available. After all, no company would consider writing their own word processing or spreadsheet software from scratch, so why should they consider writing their own information management system? It may have made sense when the industry was new and few commercial systems could be easily customized to the lab's requirements. But in this era of user-configurable solutions and software sustainability, it's counterproductive to work harder by doing tactical programming in-house when staff could be more effective doing strategic IT tasks.

Some of working smarter will involve filling in the gaps between non-electronic and electronic processes. For instance, keeping notes in a paper laboratory notebook rather than capturing patent-related conceptual details in an ELN that is directly connected to the laboratory's systems is not working smarter. Using the ELN is working smarter.

Capturing data electronically is the key to data automation and hence the key to process automation. Process automation in turn is the key to process optimization and thus staff optimization. Staff optimization, not staff reduction, is the key to corporate profits during the challenging times ahead.