Khemia Software will be exhibiting at the FSEA’s Spring Meeting and Technical Session on May 10th – May 12th.  For additional information, please see www.fsea.net.

Programmer/Developer – LIMS

Job Description:

Full-time position for an established IT professional to support and improve its Best-In-Class software product marketed as Omega LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System).  This product is used by commercial and government laboratories to handle all phases of lab operations such as sample management, scheduling, analytical results, QA/QC, reporting and invoicing among others. This position entails design, development, testing and implementation of new features and functionalities as well as fixing issues reported by clients.  The physical location of this job is in Livonia, Michigan and cannot work remotely.

Job Requirements:

The ideal candidate would be:

• Experienced in all phases of product development lifecycle
• Motivated by growing and mentoring people
• A critical thinker, an effective coach and team builder
• Translates strategy into action and ultimately into realized business value
• Is passionate about problem solving in a most efficient manner
• Is passionate about sharing knowledge with others and vice versa
• Skillful in engaging when sharing knowledge and experience to solve problems
• Focuses on the success of others to add value to the enterprise
• Promotes collaboration in challenging executive and team circumstances
• Open minded with a learning/teaching attitude
• Encourages creativity, guiding and coaching staff in a non-controlling manner
• A high sense of urgency to respond to client issues and meeting deadlines
• Ability to work with and manage legacy code
• Understand and follow good programming practices including the use of reusable code

Must have:

• A degree in computer science, business information systems, or a related field
• 5 plus years of strong experience in software design, development and implementation
• Expert level knowledge and experience with MS Access, VBA, Visual Studio, ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, MS SQL Server, SSRS, and Web Services
• Expertise in windows environment on a client server platform and browser based architecture
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organization and time management skills to solve customer problems at remote locations

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for design, development, testing and implementation of software solutions
• Work closely with internal staff and outside consultants to solve complex problems and create value for our clients
• Participate in code review and unit testing to ensure acceptable performance
• Respond to client issues in a timely manner
• Coach or mentor team members, specifically around the development of technical skills and practices
• Act as a role model and encourage professionalism and honesty
• Be prepared to work long and flexible hours to meet client schedules and deadlines
• Prepare reference materials for users by writing operating instructions
• Maintain historical records by documenting program development and revisions
• Maintain client confidence and protect operations by keeping information confidential.

How To Apply:  Send resume to hr@khemia.com

About Khemia Software:

Khemia Software is a premier provider of Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) for the environmental, water/wastewater, food & beverage, manufacturing and chemical industries. Founded in 1995, the company has successfully implemented its LIMS in numerous laboratories across the United States and internationally. Our professionals have extensive experience working within laboratories and understand the challenges that clients face. Combining this background with over 20 years of product development has culminated in Omega 11, our most feature-rich and configurable LIMS to date.

By Robert Benz, Sales & Marketing Director for Khemia Software

Many of the broader laboratory based benefits of LIMS are well known: LIMS track samples from entry into the laboratory (in some cases even the field data and collection) to final analysis and disposal; LIMS track and document reagent and standards usage within the laboratory; LIMS generate reports and electronic data deliverables (EDDs).  However, one important and often overlooked feature is that LIMS can also track and record human resource (HR) information.

First and foremost, laboratories must keep some basic personal information in regards to their employees both for business and regulatory reasons.  Within the security blanket of a LIMS, storing personal information while keeping it private to only those with the proper rights to view this information is a simple and well vetted process.  As can be seen from the example below, hire/left date, social security number (if required), a copy of the employee’s signature and whether they are active or inactive may be set, as well as assigning a password:

In addition, database roles may be set to allow staff access to different sections of the LIMS.  For example, analysts typically do not have EDD administration rights and often do not need to mind the pricing of analyses to clients, however, many laboratories find it useful for their analyst to see vendor pricing and have access to linked files.  Similarly, office staffs that have little to do with the actual validation of data can have this restricted from their roles.  HR is often best utilized when first applied before an accidental overstep occurs.

While much of the personal information may need to be private, contacting various members of staff might be vital in certain situations – i.e. I still remember getting the call that a parr bomb had exploded in one of the ovens in inorganics at the laboratory as I was sitting down for dinner one evening.  While fortunately no one was hurt, as the inorganics manager, it was vital for me to know immediately upon its happening and return to the laboratory quickly.  Having a set of contact information readily accessible in the LIMS is ideal for this type of situation.  An example of viewable laboratory personnel details may be seen below:

LIMS can also function as a great resource for recording training information. Training with proper documentation continues to grow in importance and within any good laboratory there are generally some training programs in place, whether internal or external.  What the training was about, when it was offered (date/time) and who attended is important to document and note for both the employee themselves and the laboratory.  The training course’s organizer/presenter, duration and frequency should at a minimum be recorded.  Ideally, any handouts or information provided should be linked to the training so that it may be accessed be staff as needed and documented by the laboratory.  An example of a page dedicated to logging this information may be seen below:

In addition to training records, OSHA record keeping requirements for injury and illness, etc. may also be met simply by recording the vital information within the LIMS and linking/attaching the proper files.  This information is important for employers, employees and OSHA in evaluating the safety of a workplace, understanding industry hazards and implementing worker protections to reduce and eliminate hazards.

On a lighter and simpler note, holiday schedules for laboratories are also extremely important. Laboratories routinely have to schedule short-hold time analyses and sampling events.  Many laboratories have to run around the clock with multiple shifts all year long.  Simply by making a record of the holidays upfront and apparent, as seen below, and by properly scheduling people to be in place can avoid much heartache and confusion.  I do remember some improperly scheduled events ruining my social plans as an analyst as well as ruining a number of employees’ plans as a department manager.  Most definitely a case of “a little planning goes a long way†towards employee happiness.

Another major advantage within a LIMS for HR is employee evaluation.  Obviously an employee’s worth is not wholly tied to production, but it does certainly play a hand.  As many laboratory managers can vouch for, pulling old log books and seeing how many analyses and batches an employee ran is often a matter of making a good guess with some backing.  Within a LIMS, this can be done with a handful of keystrokes to give a true performance evaluation as all data going into and linked to the LIMS is linked to the employee via their log in credentials.

Key performance metrics by department and by analyst may be pulled under a wide variety of time scales and other criteria from this management dashboard.  Often, from a management perspective, departments can be looked at based on total work completed, work completed late and work by an individual analyst to best judge what or what might not need to happen within a certain group.  Again, often with a little HR pre-intervention, HR issues can be laid to rest before they become realities that a laboratory has to deal with.

While HR in any organization is not necessarily straightforward, it does have some unique challenges in the laboratory world.  By simply using tools that already exist in a mature LIMS, HR’s grasp on the needs and needed controls may be largely gained without going well outside the box.

For any additional information, please contact Robert Benz (rbenz@khemia.com) at Khemia Software, Inc. (www.khemia.com).  This article may also be seen at on LIMSFinder (www.limsfinder.com) at http://www.limsfinder.com/BlogDetail.aspx?id=42315_0_2_0_C.

See the following link to the TNI courses being offered in March 2017:  http://us14.campaign-archive1.com/?u=52d1e20b54514b5888bddd9dd&id=758d3dbfe8&e=a1218e022a

Basic Environmental Laboratory
Assessor Training Course

Environmental Laboratory Refresher
Assessor Training Course

NEFAP Assessor Training Course

More details on this course can be found at the TNI Educational Delivery System home page at: http://nelac-institute.org/content/load_eds.php?id=98.