In this LIMS case study, we delve into how Comvita faced the challenges of rapid growth and evolving regulations head-on. Let’s discover how QLIMS revolutionized their processes, making data-driven decisions a breeze and boosting productivity by 20%.
About Comvita
Comvita is a natural health products company, based primarily around bee products. Since it was founded over 40 years ago, the company has a strong emphasis on science and research, with a focus on natural products with known benefits, such as Manuka honey, Propolis, and Olive Leaf Extract.
With over 40,000 hives in New Zealand and an 800,000 olive tree farm in Australia, they control their supply chain from source to shelf, setting a high standard for traceability. The company has expanded its reach to global markets, including China, Asia, the US, and the UK, each with unique regulations and governance procedures. Comvita has divided its operations into two crucial teams, the analysis and Quality Control team.
The Challenge
Facing rapid growth and increasing data demands, Comvita’s lab and quality control teams were hampered by manual processes, relying on Excel spreadsheets and Word documents. The Lab Manager explains, “For us, the catalyst very simply was scale.”
With new regulatory MPI requirements for Manuka Honey, adopting a new solution became imperative. He notes, “The business went through a very rapid growth curve which meant the amount of data entry and testing required became so large it was difficult to support.”
The Solution
Comvita began by reviewing the business’ requirements and evaluating software solutions, under Project Manager. Being able to prove the traceability of all ingredients from end to end was key.
QLIMS cloud hosted with:
- Worklist Module
- CAPA Module
- Sample Splitting and Collation Module
- QLIMS Bridge for instrument integration
- Custom Comvita Quality Control Module
The Results
The big win for Comvita since the introduction of the QLIMS has been the speed and decision-making benefits provided by greater data availability, with information from the lab instruments imported straight to the database, and into BI reporting.
The lab manager says, “The biggest improvement we’ve noticed has been in productivity. We believe that QLIMS has contributed a time saving of 20% for our lab technicians.”
“We’ve also linked QLIMS to our ERP system via the cloud, allowing us to run Business Intelligence dashboards. This means people are able to slice the data as they need to make decisions in real-time, – You can’t do that if the data is in a spreadsheet.”
Your path to streamlined lab operations begins with a simple click, so don’t hesitate to contact us today.
