Custom Engineering / Nimex Solutions
Laboratory Production Automation
Diagnostic kit components are volumes computed from reactions and concentrations, not fixed quantities. A confirmed kit order opens a production plan that computes every volume and the plate packing, mints one LOT and generates lot-traced manufacturing orders and shortfall purchases in dependency order.
Architecture: life-sciences kit production · volumes from concentrations
The problem
Kit production does not fit a fixed bill of materials.
A PCR kit's oligo mixes, master mix and controls are volumes that follow from the reaction count, the reaction volume, stock and target concentrations and a production overage (C1V1 = C2V2). A bill of materials with fixed quantities cannot express that.
Planning therefore lived in spreadsheets: volumes, water back-fill, tubes or plates, and which component is made, taken from stock or bought.
Each kit is a multi-level chain of orders that must carry the same LOT, and nothing may start before the volumes are right.
What we engineered
A recipe layer that computes, validates and generates.
Recipe layer
- Products and BoMs carry a kind: kit, oligo mix, oligo, oligo component, master mix, positive control, NTC, molecular-grade water, consumable.
- Recipe parameters: kit size, reaction volume, stock concentration, mix total per reaction, overage, minimum batch; target concentration, tube count and carrier per line.
- A fulfilment scenario per kind: manufacture, use stock else manufacture, purchase, use stock else purchase.
Volumes and packing
- Per-reaction volume = reaction volume ÷ (stock ÷ target concentration) × overage; batch = per-reaction volume × reactions × tubes.
- Water back-fill = mix total − Σ oligo volumes; a negative value is flagged and blocks generation.
- Falcon kits: the smallest tube that holds the per-kit volume. Pre-plated kits: per plate = 12 × ⌊8 ÷ M⌋, plates = ⌈reactions × 0.96 ÷ per plate⌉, 4 plates per box.
Generation and LOT
- Generate MOs mints the kit LOT first (production date + 4-letter kit code + daily counter) and stamps it on every made-to-order component.
- Orders in dependency order (oligos → oligo mixes → kit) through dedicated work centres, linked to the sales order.
- Shared semi-finished stock replenished with minimum batches; missing purchasable components bought through native routes.
- A bilingual Excel work plan and a bulk Produce action that closes the chain in order.
Extensible
- Kit types are pluggable strategies: a new kit type is one selection value and one strategy class.
- Limit-of-detection panels planned alongside the main kit, inheriting its LOT.
How it works
From the kit order to lot-traced production.
- Order confirmed
A sales order with a kit line opens a production plan in Draft.
- Recipe explosion
The kit expands into oligo mixes and components; per-reaction and batch volumes are computed.
- Mix totals and packing
Mix totals, water back-fill, carriers or plates and boxes, stock, shortfall and supply per component.
- Generate MOs
No negative water balance, no orders yet: the LOT is minted and the orders are created in dependency order; the plan is Confirmed.
- Shortfall purchased
On order confirmation, missing purchasable components are bought through native routes, linked to the order.
- Produce
Bulk Produce or the lab floor closes oligos, mixes and the kit; when all orders are done the plan is Done.
- Work plan
Export Work Plan writes the bilingual workbook for the lab.
Integration points
The configurator in the middle of the lab's flow.
- Sales
Kit and LoD order lines open the plans; smart buttons back to the plans.
- Manufacturing
Orders per oligo, mix and kit through six lab work centres.
- Purchase
Shortfall purchases through native routes, linked to the order.
- Inventory
One kit LOT on every made-to-order component; stock components keep their own lots.
- Lab floor & labels
Operators produce on the tablet floor; kit labels are printed through the BarTender integration.