Digital transformation of a real-life R&D process using a structured approach based on the Internet of Things

In an era of increasingly stringent regulatory requirements and growing demands on laboratories in terms of data quality, integrity and reproducibility, combined with increasing sample throughput, digitization of the laboratory environment is an important tool to meet these growing demands. Unfortunately, many challenges stand in the way. Not only are these barriers difficult to overcome, but they also cut across the different professions that are essential to any digitization effort. For most laboratories, however, the simple question remains: How to transform an existing laboratory? This article proposes a structured method to realize the SmartLab and to verify its feasibility in practice, using a real R&D process. Consequently, on a qualitative level, not only has data integrity and sample traceability been enhanced, but standardization has also been increased. Quantitatively, the walk-away time was tripled and the efficiency of individual process steps was increased by over 20%. The project's success can be attributed to the implementation of a systematic methodology for digital transformation, which functioned as a comprehensive guide, facilitating the execution of the project in a step-by-step manner.