Listen to what Susan Le at Aemtek Laboratory has to say about her Smart Dilutor, Homogenizing Masticator, Eddy Jet Spiral Plater, and Flash&Go Colony Counter.
0:21 - What services does the lab provide?
"Aemtek is a microbiology testing lab. We test samples such as food samples, water samples, as well as environmental samples. We started back in 2002, and then we kind of branched out in 2007 to do food safety testing. And then our focus always is kind of our slogan, we want fast accurate as well as reliable results for our clients."
0:50 - What motivated you to implement automation in the lab?
"Definitely automation provides an increase in efficiency as well as productivity. It also helps with accuracy as well as confidence in sample preparation and analysis. We can trust it's consistent performance every time, so you have that technician variability. We are doing sample preparation, so as you are doing one sample, you can also work on the next sample as one is going through, you know, the Smart Dilutor or one's goign through the Masticator. So while that's going, you can multitask and then work on the next sample and that's just kind of an ease of flow which is really time saving, as well as efficient. I really like that the Eddy Jet allows us to plate multiple dilutions on like one single plate. That's something that would take a lot of time if we had to do one dilution at a time. so I like that it has that ability and then when the Flash and Go Colony Counter, we can get a colony count in seconds as well as calculation of what we're trying to count. A lot of our customers like to come to us because, you know, 1. we are very like you know, we meet our turnaround times and a part of that is because we use automated equipment. If we didn't have it, we probably wouldn't meet our turn around times. We use your automated equipment lik every day that the lab is in operation. So without it, you know, we would basically double or triple the time spent doing sample preparation or sample analysis. Obviously manual work means more time, means more people, it means more money. And then we also have that concern of variation of data due to just manually doing it, you know, using technicians. Automation is the future. Like we're going to probably be needing it more often in the future as we go. As a fast pace environment, you're going to want to increase productivity as well as efficiency and it's good that automation, you know, if it works consistently, then it'll be good."
3:01 - How important are these factors in determining food safety?
"It's very crucial because results that we're getting, these are going to our clients that will be using it for their operations. So, using automation, the fact that automated equipment can be consistent in how it's performing, that kind of lets us know that we could be confident in our process and then they can be confident with us. We want to provide them with the most accurate information and results because that will affect them and how they release their product. So, if something went wrong here, we can let them know and they can make the decision, you know, make the right steps to either release a product or not release the product. And in that, we're basically serving the public. We are an ethical lab.... we really want to make sure that what we're providing our clients is accurate and honest."
3:50 - How has your experience working with Neutec been?
"Working with Neutec has been very good. It's actually been very positive. I don't think I've ever has a bad experience. It's very personable and I feel comfortable and I feel good that I'm working with people that are happy to help."