This case shows a good example how a pilot plant can be integrated with several analysis departments to run multiple different studies efficiently together on one R&D department.
Before integration, manual reporting was required for a comparison of experimental operation runs against physical/chemical test results;
After integration, statistical processing rules could be applied by the data-structure that allowed a match of pilot-plant operation with QC data. (PI-data with LIMS). For example: finding the equipment settings of the best lot by test-group, of the settings of the best lot by parameter.
Conclusion
The truth discipline of data collection in detailed format, inside the LIMS, allows for automated data processing, facilitating standard statistical operations like indication of the best lot out of an experimental batch. By doing so, the key equipment settings to produce the optimal end-product can be quickly found. It also allows for re-use of the experimental data for comparison with future research.