Abstract

SiLA—Standards to Improve Overall Lab Efficiency

Niklaus Graber, President , SiLA

A science lab typically consists of many laboratory instruments, some of which stand alone, while others are connected to form complete systems. All of these devices produce some kind of data which is either still hand-written in a notebook, or better, pushed toward a LIMS system and eventually to an enterprise, or ERP solution. While all of this technology is intended to benefit a lab and its results, the device and data integration instead brings complexity and added labor, resulting in poor laboratory efficiency. SiLA (Standardization in Lab Automation) makes laboratory integration simpler today and in the future. As an international, non-profit consortium, SiLA provides open standards to address both the vertical and horizontal pain points in a lab, no matter what kind of device or which software vendor is being used. By standardizing device interfaces (horizontal) and data formats (vertical), just to name a few, SiLA makes for better implementations at all levels in a lab, increasing the efficiency of result generation, propagation, and processing. In short, scientists now longer have to be concerned with firmware and driver incompatibilities or data format conflicts. Thanks to SiLA, they can place their focus and energy back to the science by allowing SiLA standards to simplify both their result and lab management.