Laboratory Risk Management: Are You Operating “Behind the Power Curve”?
Laboratories that operate “Behind the Power Curve” are overlooking the costly ramifications of electrical power as a source of operational risk. The consequences associated with this omission of strategic planning include:
· Instrumentation failures,
· Data outliers,
· High costs per reportable results, and
· Outright data informatics destruction.
Controlling power within the sensitive operating environment of your lab will deliver tighter control over your bottom line by minimizing potentially costly surprises.
We live in a world of colloquial expressions and use them frequently in our professional and personal lives. Working in the extremely competitive operating environment of the laboratory, we are all familiar with the pressure lab managers face to produce “reportable results” in a “timely manner,” that “exceed expectations” for “reproducibility” and “reliability,” while delivering “on schedule,” and, of course, “on budget.” All of these conversational expressions instantly produce a graphic message and are used as short-cut methods of communicating.
Borrowing a colloquial term from the aviation industry, operating “Behind the Power Curve” presents a series of eminent risks to a lab’s operating environment. This expression refers to business situations operating at a deficit (behind external circumstances – not up to the task), which require significant application of catching up (business energy and resources) to become stable with the operating environment once again. If this terminology sounds ominous, it should.
Operating “Behind the Power Curve” represents an omission in strategic planning/training or the misapplication of standard operating procedures in an operational (tactical) setting. In the aviation world, this phenomenon occurs when a pilot operates her/his aircraft (equipment) with a power deficit and literally drops or crashes the airplane onto the runway. We all know this as that “sinking feeling” and can usually predict the outcome; at best a rough landing; or a bumpy ride down the runway; or at worst a crash.
The same phenomenon can be applied to the laboratory. The most overlooked energy resource in the lab environment is electrical power. Most labs operate with uncorrected, direct-from-the-utility power, which is plagued with deficiencies, transients, and voids.
Unfortunately, we usually learn the importance of not operating the lab “Behind the Power Curve” after we have experienced any one of the following results: a series of spurious instrument failures, data outliers, higher than normal costs per reportable result, or have lost the lab’s informatics all together, due to a single power glitch or outright failure.
What can the lab manager do to ensure an operational environment that will not fall “Behind the Power Curve”? The solution is simple and cost effective. The application of an Instrument Power Protection System (IPPS), complete with Smart Monitoring, will give your laboratory comprehensive control over the power in your lab, allowing you to sleep at night by avoiding costly surprises.
When you need to get ahead of the power curve you need the most reliable, cost-effective, instrument-specific power protection solution available today. Contact Precision Power International for the keys to managing your critical utility power.
