Quality and information management in the laboratory

Quality management is an important aspect of work for laboratories of any size. Higher quality leads to higher productivity and thus allows an organization to compete better on the market. In order for quality management to be successful the organization must effectively manage the collection and dissemination of information. The management of information must be efficient so that gains in productivity are not offset by time-consuming paperwork. We present a methodology for the joint management of quality and information in a laboratory setting. This has been developed over the last two and a half years at the laboratory for molecular biology and functional genomics of the University of Applied Sciences in Wildau, Germany. Our approach is generic and can be applied to any laboratory of small to medium size.