To meet regulatory and legal requirements, process conditions need to be monitored and data stored through ever expanding networks. Information technology is resulting in new ways of using the enormous data volumes gathered by the modern automated lab. The lab of the future will present unforeseen challenges and opportunities as higher throughput, precisely controlled automated processes and information collection and analysis solve today’s problems and bring new ideas to light.

The SMART lab begins with the automation of manual procedures in system modules and instruments that can be easily integrated into complete processes. These components network together for control and data collection via lab integration software (LIMS). The lab of the future builds on this with software that helps define the process layout and integrate digital data management throughout the process. The result is a flexible, efficient system that can be set up rapidly and validated more easily than manual processes.

With increasing digitalization, many processes and structures in the laboratory need to be reconsidered. Lab instruments and systems need to be network-compatible with common hardware and software handshakes to facilitate the interchange of both samples and data. This requires more complex and comprehensive automated solutions with simple batch control and monitoring accessible for lab staff using easy to understand local graphic displays, while production and data are transferred to higher level networks. Industry is already responding to these needs: the number of network-compatible lab instruments with smart functions is growing rapidly. The number of LIMS solutions is growing and open standards for lab information transfer such as SiLA are gaining traction. Lab 4.0 is starting to become real.

Many of the ideas for the automated lab of today and the future are coming from automation in other industries – for example, many robotic concepts have initial commercial roots in the automotive and light assembly industries. Few automated processes, anywhere in the world, are controlled as tightly as semiconductor chip fabrication. As an automation leader in these industries, Festo has learned, and applies them. Festo’s Industry 4.0 manufacturing plant in Ostfildern, near Stuttgart, is a learning center for new technology and processes, as well as one of the most important production facilities at Festo.