Overcoming the Challenges of Modern Lab Equipment Maintenance
Lab equipment plays a critical role in supporting scientific research. From refrigerators and freezers to incubators, these assets are essential for safeguarding sensitive samples and materials to help ensure reliable, reproducible study results.
Keeping these essential pieces of equipment running, though, requires effective continuous maintenance. If equipment isn't working properly, there can be serious consequences, including compromised samples, delayed experiments, and increased costs.
But lab equipment maintenance is becoming more complex, with facilities staff needing to deal with rapidly advancing technology, broadening regulatory requirements, and increasing uptime expectations.
Here, we break down the demands of modern lab equipment maintenance, highlighting the challenges teams face, and the strategies that can help futureproof your maintenance approach.
The Evolving Pressures of Modern Lab Equipment Maintenance
Facilities teams today are expected to do more than simply fix broken equipment. With technological advancements and changing expectations, maintenance roles are shifting in scope and complexity.
Adapting to Technological Change
Modern lab equipment is becoming more advanced and embedded with digital systems, which can make maintenance more complex. Facilities teams are expected to be able to manage this new digital infrastructure alongside mechanical systems, often requiring new training and increasing the need for collaboration with IT departments or vendor support teams.
In this way, and with technology continually advancing, facilities teams are pressured to constantly adapt and evolve their skill sets to fulfill their role.
Balancing Reactive vs Proactive Maintenance
Historically, lab equipment maintenance followed a simple reactive model: fix it when it breaks. Today, however, there is an expectation to implement preventative and proactive maintenance. Although this tactic improves equipment lifespan and decreases downtime, it does make managing maintenance more complicated.
More specifically, facilities teams can find it difficult to keep on top of proactive maintenance alongside unplanned, urgent, reactive repairs, which may take up most of their time. Maintenance strategies must, therefore, consider where proactive maintenance is essential (e.g., critical equipment), and where reactive approaches could be more cost-effective, which can be complex to manage.
Additionally, labs may lack integrated maintenance tracking systems, or may be working with outdated equipment that does not have built-in predictive maintenance tools, making it even more difficult to manage workloads.
Managing Increasing Regulatory Demands
In increasingly complex lab environments, facilities teams must comply with growing regulatory demands, and play a direct role in regulatory compliance.
In Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratories, for example, facilities teams must meticulously document equipment maintenance, servicing, and calibration so the information can be audited and inspected as needed by regulatory bodies.
Since regulations frequently evolve, too, facilities teams can spend significant time staying up to date on changes and ensuring maintenance procedures align, reducing the time available for other tasks.
Increased Pressure to Minimize Downtime
Perhaps the most notable pressure on facilities professionals is the need to keep critical equipment running all the time. Equipment downtime can mean sample losses, potentially costing months or years of research, as well as lab revenue. Since downtime can mean revenue loss, executives are increasingly asking for uptime metrics, putting more pressure on facilities teams. Additionally, to align with GLP and GMP standards, any unplanned downtime must be documented, reported, and investigated, adding to administrative burden.
Outside of unplanned downtime, scheduled maintenance (such as defrosting) requires the temporary shutting down of the units, which can be difficult to coordinate around busy lab schedules.
Optimizing Your Modern Lab Equipment Maintenance Strategy
While the pressures surrounding lab equipment maintenance continue to grow, there are several practical strategies facilities teams can implement to lighten the load and stay ahead of evolving demands.
Collaborate with Procurement to Source Maintenance-Friendly Equipment
Many maintenance challenges stem from a lack of communication and alignment between facilities teams and procurement when selecting equipment. As procurement teams don't deal with equipment on a daily basis, they are often unaware of which features on refrigerators, freezers, and incubators are best suited to support maintenance teams, and may be more focused on upfront costs, for instance.
However, by proactively working with procurement, facilities teams can ensure that things like long-term maintenance needs, performance reliability, and service accessibility are considered from the outset.
Features to look out for:
- Frost mitigation on ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers: features that reduce frost build-up on inner doors can eliminate the need for defrosting, increasing equipment uptime. Additionally, reduced frost accumulation helps prevent damage to freezer components, further reducing the need for maintenance.
- Built-in self-diagnostic systems: AI-powered self-diagnostic tools can help to predict equipment issues early so that maintenance can be scheduled before failure occurs. Self-diagnostic tools can also make it easier for staff to diagnose more complex electronic issues in modern equipment.
- Key component redundancy: features that provide back-ups to critical systems or components, such as dual compressors on freezers, mean facilities teams don't have to respond immediately to failures, allowing maintenance to be more easily scheduled into workdays.
- Easy access to key components: equipment designed with easily reachable critical components allows for quicker and easier maintenance, reducing unit downtime when something does go wrong.
- Low-maintenance sterilization in incubators: incubators that use UV bulbs rather than HEPA filters for sterilization can reduce maintenance burden. While HEPA filters must be continually maintained and replaced every year, UV bulbs can last for up to six years without replacement.
Provide Frequent Training for Facilities Staff and Lab Users
As noted earlier, facilities teams are now expected to maintain systems that combine mechanical refrigeration, advanced electronics, and digital diagnostics — a mix that requires diverse technical knowledge and continuous upskilling. Employing frequent, targeted training, can prevent facilities teams from falling behind, ensuring that they remain up to date with new maintenance needs.
As well as providing frequent training on new equipment, facilities professionals should also ensure that there are detailed, easy-to-follow maintenance protocols for each piece of equipment, including step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting guides.
Training for lab users can include:
- Rigorous, clear onboarding processes
- Visible signage near equipment with reminders of best practices and essential information
- Making sure staff are aware of the most common issues, which issues should be reported, and to whom
- Training on proper cleaning protocols and daily care routines required to keep equipment functioning optimally
Partner with Vendors That Offer Maintenance Support
As lab equipment becomes more complex, the right vendor relationship becomes even more important. A strong support partner can simplify maintenance, reduce downtime, aid compliance, and relieve the workload on facilities teams.
Look for vendors that offer:
- Remote diagnostic and maintenance guidance: vendors that provide real-time system insights and troubleshooting support can help identify and resolve issues faster.
- Equipment lifecycle support: working with vendors that offer spare parts and support for equipment across its lifespan can ease the maintenance burden as equipment gets older.
- Parts and labor warranties: while most vendors offer warranties for broken parts, look for vendors that also cover third-party repairs, as this saves both admin time and costs.
- Validation services: vendors that offer validation in accordance with current GxP regulations ensure that equipment meets the highest regulatory standards and frees up internal maintenance teams to focus on other priorities.
- Training services: some vendors offer training for their equipment, which can be helpful for facilities staff who may be unfamiliar with carrying out maintenance on newer equipment models.
Meeting Modern Lab Equipment Maintenance Demands
Today's facilities professionals navigate a lab environment that's more complex and demanding than ever. Maintaining critical equipment now requires broader and more technical expertise, from managing advanced electronics and digital diagnostics to supporting regulatory compliance.
But, through frequent training, working with supportive vendors, and purchasing equipment that eases the maintenance burden, facilities professionals can future-proof their lab equipment maintenance to reduce workload and keep lab operations running smoothly.