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News Release from: BASF IT Services | Subject: Analytics Automation Complex
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 October 2006
BASF IT Services wins an IChemE Award
for 2006
The Analytics Automation Complex is an IT solution which networks analytic measuring devices working with individual IT-based systems to form a single complex, while standardizing work steps
The IT service provider won the "AspenTech Award for Innovation in IT" for its Analytics Automation Complex or "Automationsverbund Analytik", an IT solution which networks analytic measuring devices working with individual IT-based systems to form a single complex, while standardizing work steps at the same time "We are extremely pleased with this award," said BASF IT Services Managing Director Wolfgang Erny in reaction to the prize
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 14 Sep 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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"More efficient process design, new approaches and pursuing inventive ideas, this is precisely our business -- Developing innovative IT solutions.
To see our performance acknowledged not only in the satisfaction of our customers, but also in the form of an award like this is a particularly important honor for our company".
The IChemE Awards have been presented annually since 1994 by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), the British professional association of chemical and process engineers.
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The essential criteria are originality, technical innovation, business success, environmental impact and safety as well as the potential for wider applicability.
The "AspenTech Award for Innovation in IT", sponsored by the US process industry software company, was awarded this year for the third time.
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The automation complex was developed jointly with the BASF Aktiengesellschaft Competence Center Analytics.
Here 350 employees work around the clock analysing test products and sales products of all types, returning information important for research and development as well as for production.
They also test products, approve them for example for use with foodstuffs, and make a substantial contribution to quality assurance.
Approximately 1,000 computer-supported measuring devices are used here, incorporating a widely varied array of standard electronic apparatus and special software products necessary for the measurement procedures.
BASF IT Services based its new development on the BASF Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).
Multi-phased architecture now makes it possible to connect the LIMS, laboratory automation systems and IT-driven measuring devices with one another.
Standardised, method-specific automation systems for spectroscopy, chromatography, elemental analysis and titration establish the connection between the LIMS and the measuring devices, coordinating data exchange, recording measured values and supporting evaluation.
The new application records data from the measuring devices in standardised interfaces, directly evaluates the data and then transfers it to various instances within the company.
This means BASF researchers now receive the analytical results they need quickly and directly in their electronic laboratory journals, product information is automatically provided in SAP/QM (Quality Management) and customers can call up their analysis certificates themselves using WorldAccount, the BASF eCommerce platform.
"Thanks to electronic processing of analysis results, today we no longer need to painstakingly consolidate countless individual pieces of information, and the number of possible error sources has been greatly reduced," says Professor Dr Klaus-Peter Jaeckel, head of the Competence Center Analytics at BASF Aktiengesellschaft.
"Furthermore, we are now able to provide our customers with their analysis results faster and more cost-effectively".
Approval of data has also been considerably simplified by the new IT solution.
Electronic signatures replace manual approval on hardcopy.
This means printing out, sorting, collecting and scanning in paper documents is eliminated completely, making it possible to save around one million DIN A4-sized pages a year.
The Automation Complex is enhanced by a document management and archiving system which manages raw data and recordings and archives them according to the respective requirements.
Here it is also possible to automatically generate work instructions, execution guidelines and documents describing quality assurance measures.
The entire Analytics Automation Complex has been validated and is in compliance with the requirements of GLP (Good Laboratory Practice), GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and quality management certificates ISO 17025 and ISO 9001.
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