Sometimes, “project management” refers to managing a team that works on a project with complex interdependencies. The full-time responsibility for managing those complexities and moving the project forward is the main focus of a project manager or perhaps a dedicated PMO, or project management office. In...
Common issues when using Excel for resource management I’ve been using spreadsheet apps during my entire career (almost 30 years now). It started with Lotus Symphony on an IBM PC AT, then Lotus 123 and finally Excel. And I’m still a big fan! I’ve been transforming spreadsheets...
Are you thinking about digitalizing your laboratory resource planning & scheduling? Maybe already listing a couple of potential software vendors? Eventually, you want to arrive at a cloud-based, laser-focused enterprise software that makes the end user's life easier and integrates smoothly with all your other...
The importance of fully optimizing asset utilization Equipment is expensive, so you need to ask yourself: are we using our equipment as efficiently as possible? Is it giving us the desired return on investment? Should we invest in new equipment or solve capacity bottlenecks by better...
Do you sometimes tend to make decisions without reliable data to back them up? In today’s labs, critical decisions about how to optimize the ROI of laboratory equipment are often made based on incomplete information. Having a clear picture of instrument usage can help you...
During the SmartLab Europe event (100% digitally this year), we were thrilled to meet with a lot of interesting people and exchange thoughts on building a roadmap for the lab of the future. After 15+ virtual conversations with a variety of attendees, our key takeaway is...
Setting the scene Clients rely on Binocs to plan and schedule knowledge workers for process development, clinical batch production, service labs… because it assures that the right competent resources and equipment are available at the right time. A multinational biopharma company that already uses Binocs in a...
More and more pharma and biopharma companies discover the business value of resource planning and scheduling. There is a strong need to optimize the utilization and planning adherence of analysts, scientists and the equipment they use in the quality control labs, R&D labs or pilot plants...
May 21st, 2019 was a big day for us, not only because it was the first day of the Binocs user meeting. It was also the day on which we unveiled our newest component: The Binocs performance Twin. The Binocs Performance Twin is a configurable platform...
Business context We are a global regulatory affairs department that submits 1000+ submissions/year. We need to make and support delivery commitments to regulatory authorities and our internal supply chain and production partners. It is an understatement when we say that this is challenging. Improvement potential Before we implemented...
Business context We work with Planisware as a Project Portfolio Management platform. Although quite complex, our PMO and project managers succeed in keeping an overview of the most important projects. The delivery teams have no access to Planisware. It helps for the prioritization and decision making, except...
In a recent report, Michael Shanler summarized recommendations for the digitalized lab of the future. (“Life Science’s Lab Informatics Digital Criteria to Separate Vendor Leaders From Laggards”, 20 December 2018, link requires registration). When we scan for visionary reports on lab informatics, we get stuck in...
Business context Every project is unique. Every task requires a different effort. Every activity has a lead time that depends on the business context. Shortly, nothing is standard and will not and cannot be standardized. That's how we saw things until our department was dragged into a...
Business context We are a department of about 450 people. 70% of our work are projects that can be sub-divided into 12 project types with a standardized template. We execute about 1500 projects/year. Our performance drivers are productivity and planning adherence. Improvement potential Projects are supported by different teams...
Business context We are an R&D team of scientists that perform experiments in cell culture processing. It is important that the experiment schedule is accurate and that the scientists (mostly in teams of 2) are available at the right timeslots. Bioreactors and downstream equipment is limited in...
What is PPM software? I recently stumbled upon a very interesting blog by Vilmos Rajda. He was a believer of the magic bullet project portfolio management sales people promised it to be. But after years of experience he came out a little disillusioned. In his blog he...
Christmas and New year pulled me away from the day-to-day rush and that was inspiring. The past three years, I focused on how organizations can improve resource utilization, especially for knowledge workers in environments such as engineering, R&D, quality and regulatory operations. In all of our implementations, we have setup...
