Environmental Testing Laboratory

The customer is a leading Environmental Testing Laboratory performing quality analysis of water , food, air and soil. The testing  carried out requires the use of incubators. Samples require storage in Cold Rooms, Refrigerators and Freezers.

Challenges

In order to comply with the requirements of their Quality Management System the laboratory manager needs to monitor temperatures achieved in all cold rooms, refrigerators ; freezers, incubators on a continuous basis. They are required to retain the temperature records permanently and have email and/or text alerts of temperature excursions. The customer sought advice from Rototherm in choosing and sourcing the most appropriate equipment to meet their objectives

Impact on Business

Currently a staff member is required to manually record temperatures – this is very time consuming and does not provide continuous records nor alarm alerts of temperature excursions. Manual records are less acceptable to auditors than the tamper proof continuous temperature records provided by an automatic temperature monitoring system. Out of hours alerts of temperature excursions are no longer a ‘nice to have’ they are now a necessity.

Approach

During consultation with the customer, Rototherm determined the customer requirements relating to accuracy, ease of use, precision, alarm alerts,mobility, technical support, calibrations. The requirement was for an automatic temperature monitoring system which would fulfill the requirements of the Quality System and audit requirements. These requirements include annual calibration to a national reference standard, and a Service Level Agreement including Remote technical support.

Solutions

The IceSpy Automatic Temperature Monitoring System was recommended. This system fulfils all of the current requirements and is capable of being expanded easily due to it’s scalability and the fact that being wireless the sensors can be added with minimal interference to normal operations
Calibration to National and International Reference Standards was performed prior to installation
Rototherm install technicians installed the hardware and software; commissioned the system and trained the users
An SLA [Service Level Agreement] incorporating Remote Support; on site Support and Calibration was put in place

The Outcome

Customer has the appropriate system to monitor temperatures as required. Their SLA provides the customer peace of mind that all activities conducted are pre-agreed and documented. Remote technical support means that the laboratory manager can perform his/her role secure in the knowledge that any technical issues will be dealt with in an efficient, timely and friendly manner.