AUTOMATION IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL ANALYSIS LABORATORY - A CENTRALIZED DECENTRALIZED APPROACH

It has been over 10 years since robots have appeared in the pharmaceut ical analysis laboratory. In the early days, it was common for one sel ected individual to be responsible for the programming, usage and main tenance of the robots(s). However, the increasing use of robotics has prompted the formation of robotics 'laboratories' and/or 'groups'. Thi s is especially true when multiple robotic systems and applications ar e involved. Over the past several years at ISLAR, many champions of ro botics have given presentations on the setup and usage of robotics wit hin their organizations. These managers have described both the 'centr alized' and 'decentralized' approaches to the implementation of roboti cs. In the centralized system, a single group is charged with all aspe cts of the robotic project, including justification, purchase, validat ion, use and maintenance. Under such an arrangement, samples are usual ly given to the robotics group for analysis. In contrast, a totally de centralized approach to robotics would have units interspersed through out the organization, with each individual group responsible for their respective unit(s), in much the same way as liquid chromatographs are considered. At Hoffmann-La Roche, aspects of both the centralized and decentralized approaches to robotics are used which make our combined system the 'best of both worlds'. This paper describes the Roche phil osophy towards robotics and highlights the advantages to the system us ed.