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Interlab 1.3 released
The South African Wine Laboratory Association, SAWLA, over a period of months, sponsored a number of incremental improvements and new features to Interlab, Bika's web based LIMS for inter-laboratory proficiency testing. These are bundled in this release
Bika Interlab - Web based LIMS for inter-laboratory proficiency testing
SAWLA, an association of approximately 50 wine laboratories in the Western Cape wine making region, pioneered Bika Interlab in 2006, reducing turnaround time from 3 weeks when they were using a spreadsheet based system, to receiving immediate results and gaining valuable time should corrective action be required
The proficiency testing scheme (PTS) runs on a monthly basis, two different wine samples per month. The scheme manager validates bulk wine as homogeneous in an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory, then bottles and distributes the samples, co-ordinating the sample release from SAWLA's Bika Interlab instance. Member labs then have a week to analyse the samples, on 20 different parameters, and submit their results on-line
Statistical results are available immediately and presented graphically for easy trend analysis and rapid corrective action
The improvements in the Interlab 1.3 release range from the cosmetic to performance enhancements and workflow simplifications. This serves:
To enhance performance, mean, standard deviation an performance statistics are calculated at the close of the testing rounds only, no longer after each result submission
To encourage participation, the system lists top performing labs in a portlet associated with the sample round being viewed. This now includes the sample type. The member lab's position and score are now included in closing emails and labs no longer have to go on-line for this verification
To communicate general news or announcements to member labs, an email function and template is introduced from where PT managers can compile personalised messages (including name, surname, username, etc.) to all or a selection of member labs' contacts
For SAWLA, issues arose from the density test that for wine is close to 1.00000 and only differs in the 4th or 5th decimal between results submitted by participating laboratories, with the standard deviation and Z-values equally precise. To resolve this, the decimal precision for analysis results and stats can now be individually configured
A lot of support issues arose from the 2 phase results submission inherited from Bika's standard LIMS, where results have to be verified by a lab manager after being submitted by an analyst. This workflow step is now optional
More information on the Bika Interlab project page
The Bika team thanks SAWLA for their ongoing support and enabling us to keep this unique application updated and available to the Open Source LIMS community
Interlab How To
Web based inter-laboratory proficiency testing work flow
Proficiency Testing
The aim of Proficiency Testing, also known as Inter-Laboratory Comparison
Programs (ILCP), is to provide laboratories with objective assessments
of the accuracy and reliability of their test results
Proficiency Testing provides the opportunity for laboratories
to benchmark their performance within a pooled industry group,
nationally or internationally. Participation in PT schemes is a requirement
for ISO 17025 accreditation
Gaob Bika LIMS 3 Release Candidate 2
European Lab Automation 2013
