Geotechnical testing laboratories face a number of challenges when providing their services to customers. They need to be able to manage samples, personnel and equipment, they need to bill for their work accurately and efficiently and they need to produce and distribute test reports automatically and quickly. But most importantly, they need to perform a wide variety of complex tests (some in the laboratory, and some on-site) while promoting best practice throughout the operation.
QESTLab is a LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) that can be instrumental in helping organisations that undertake geotechnical testing in achieving this. The software promotes very methodical and orderly management of customers, projects, work orders, samples, tests, specifications, equipment, personnel and every other aspect of the laboratory. QESTLab allows geotechnical testing organisations to:
- Quickly and easily track work progress and plan upcoming work in the laboratory;
- Quickly and easily track billing progress, including work done but not billed yet, or work not done and not billed;
- Remove duplicate data entry through the use of one system to meet the laboratory's information needs - sample tracking, data collection, results calculation, report generation and distribution, equipment calibration and billing;
- Quickly and reliably calculate test results for hundreds of construction materials and soils test methods;
- Ensure consistent reporting formats between individual tests and between different testing disciplines;
- Support the testing from various disciplines in a single centralised system - including concrete, aggregates, asphalt, soils, etc.;
- Easily enforce structured (and on-line) data approval on three levels: system supports data 'entered by', 'checked by' and 'approved by' record keeping;
- Reduce report turn around times due to rapid data entry, on-line checking and on-line approval followed by automatically generated test reports distributed electronically;
- Have full auditability/traceability with no overhead cost: the comprehensive audit trail is maintained automatically; and
- Automate the billing process to increase efficiency and reduce missed billing;
QESTLab also extends its functionality to geotechnical field testing-specific tasks. It can assist in
- Managing field technician workloads;
- Assigning work to field technicians;
- Dispatching field technicians with daily work instructions; and
- Calculating field-specific tests like field density testing which it fully supports in a number of disciplines and test variations.
The system can also be used on mobile devices like laptops and/or tablets and in real time (subject to network availability) populate its database with field-specific data while the tester is on-site. Some geotechnical testing operations can deliver an approved electronic test report, before the technician has returned from site.
Obviously, as is the case with the central adoption of any corporate grade software, there are considerable benefits at the corporate level as well. These include:
- Standardising processes and practices across multiple laboratories, with greater centralised control and document management;
- Ensuring consistent report formats are produced across the organisation;
- Providing a seamless work environment for employees that shift to a different location;
- Providing centrally available data, which in turn makes it very efficient to manage from an infrastructure/IT point of view;
- Enabling benchmarking and corporate level monitoring of efficiencies at laboratory level; and
- Allowing testing firms to bid for more lucrative, higher-end testing projects due to the very high traceability in the system, the confidence that best practice is enforced, and
the image of market leader that using QESTLab implies.
The above is not a comprehensive features list of QESTLab. They are only some of the most common benefits that geotechnical testing customers have reported after they have implemented the system. For more information on QESTLab, please click here, or contact Spectra QEST sales.
