For water analysis labs
Andonia connects to your LIMS and instruments, follows every sample from collection to report, and shows the one step that limits turnaround time. Faster reports, often with no new instruments.
We are building it now with an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited environmental lab in Brazil.
23 samples waiting. Oldest: 31 h.
Product preview, in development. Numbers are examples.
The problem
Most lab tools improve one step: a new instrument, a faster method, a better spreadsheet. But a report is only as fast as the slowest step in the flow. Speed up any other step, and samples just wait longer in front of it.
Your LIMS records each status, but nobody sees the whole flow. Turnaround time hides in the time between steps.
It can be one instrument, sample preparation, or the few people who review results. It also moves when the sample mix changes.
When work piles up, samples get close to their holding time limit. Rush jobs jump the queue and push everything else back.
How it works
Our method comes from Lean and the Theory of Constraints. Look at the whole flow first. Then act only where it raises the number of reports you send.
We read sample status times from your LIMS. Where an instrument has no data output, a camera can read its display.
A live map of the sample flow: samples waiting at each step, wait times, and turnaround time per analysis type.
The step where samples wait the longest and work piles up. Track it as it moves.
Protect the bottleneck's time, release work in the order it needs, and flag samples near their holding time limit.
Keep your LIMS
Your LIMS stores samples and results. Andonia looks at how samples flow between steps. No migration and no new data entry for your team.
The first win
Little's Law links turnaround time, samples in the lab, and reports per day. When the bottleneck keeps up, fewer samples wait, and turnaround time drops. Often the fastest way is to protect the bottleneck's time, not to buy a new instrument.
Samples arrive faster than review can clear them. The queue grows, and so does turnaround time.
Turnaround = Samples in lab ÷ Reports per day
Same instruments. Less waiting. That is what the simulation above shows.
Accredited labs
Andonia reads your data. It does not change results.
Every sample step keeps its time and its source.
Camera video stays in the lab. Only events and numbers leave it.
First pilot
Our first pilot is with an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited environmental lab in southern Brazil. We are connecting to its LIMS to track each sample through every step and find the real bottleneck.
About
In Lean, the andon is the light a worker turns on when the line has a problem. Everyone sees it, and the team fixes the cause. Andonia does the same for the whole flow: it shows where work gets stuck.
Andonia's founder has a background in Lean manufacturing and technology. The approach comes from The Goal and the Theory of Constraints: improve the whole system, not single steps. Sensors, computer vision, and AI come in only where they raise throughput.
A lab works like a small factory. Samples are the product, and turnaround time is the lead time. Water labs live with strict holding times and steady demand, so a hidden bottleneck costs them every day.
FAQ
No. Andonia works with the LIMS you already have.
We start from the sample status times your LIMS already records. Tell us which one you use.
Not to start. The first view comes from the data your LIMS already has. Cameras or sensors come later, and only where data is missing.
We start with water labs. The same method works for any lab, and for factories.
Contact
We are looking for water labs in the US and Brazil that want shorter turnaround times. Let's talk.
contact@andonia.ai