C-DAC in its endeavor to provide software solution to niche areas has come out with the new product viz. LAboratory Management & Automation System (LAMAS). This would bring comprehensive workflow automation of entire gamut of activities of a Testing Laboratory with Research and Development as its background. The solution would provide core Laboratory activities like Testing, R&D, Consultancy and Augmentation and all the other supporting functions like Purchase, Accounts, Administration, etc. The above solution would enable it to move towards paperless office and inculcate obsession to quality.

LAMAS Architecture

The goals of the above automation solution would not only look at the immediate future but also should enable it to move with the rapid changes that models an enterprise dynamically. The Technology used as a Driver to supplement the Change Management, which in turn should model organization into a virtual organization.

Based on the functionality, LAMAS has been customized to modular system that can be easily implemented in any Laboratory environment. The core modules and their functions are defined here:

LabSys

Laboratory System (LabSys) will cater to testing and sample handling needs of the various laboratories.

Maintenance & Calibration System (MaCSys) will cater to the Maintenance and Calibration needs of the equipments available in the laboratories.

Divisional Purchase System (DiPSys) will cater to the purchase activities of the divisions.

Consultancy System (ConSys) will cater to the consultancy activities undertaken by the divisions.

Research & Development System (ReDSys) will cater to the research and development activities of the various divisions.

In addition to these modules, Accounts System (AccSys), Admin System (AdSys), Quality System (QuaSys) and any other existing or proposed system would be embedded to the LAMAS would be working as one system.

Work Flow Automation of LabSys

The objective of the above system is to move towards a paperless office, which necessitates the exchange of data/information (data dependency) between these modules. In addition, several controls have been incorporated in to the system to facilitate efficiency and reliability. The integration of the above modules leads to a system that is highly complex and has met the state-of-the-art technologies of the present day. LAMAS will also serve as a management tool for decision support. All the above issues are addressed with the existing system.

Network Architecture

LAMAS has been successfully designed, developed and implemented in Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bangalore which is a leading Testing Laboratory with Research & Development as its background.

The major benefits that this system envisages are:

• Total Transparency of information to top-level management provides a better control and decision-making aid
• Provides in-built controls to eliminate irregularities
• Optimizes resource utilization by tracking and extrapolating of data
• Reduces manual intervention by adopting primary source data acquisition
• Increases productivity by reducing clerical & routine work of technical personnel
• Internet / Intranet facilities to boost marketing and publicity activities
• Standardizes of procedures and reports formats
• Reduces time delays in Final Test Report generation
• Increases overall productivity by eliminating duplicate entries made across divisions
• Increases customer satisfaction
• On-line access to information increases dissemination of information
• Eliminates manual error of computation
• Internal Audit made more effective
• Raw data is converted to invaluable Asset
• Change Management made easier without losing control
• Increases accuracy
• Provides an effective tool for Decision-making
• Pricing, Costing & Forecasting made more scientific
• Move towards paperless office
• Generates ad-hoc reports
• Brings the entire gamut of activities under one umbrella