Laboratory Managers Conference 2010

Good, better, best: improving laboratory business practices

When: 22-24 November

Where: Brisbane Convention Centre

Organiser: Science Industry Australia/Australasian Laboratory Managers Association

Registration: www.labmanagers.org.au

With the effects of the GFC still being felt across industry, academia and business, now more than ever is the time to be working smarter, not harder.

Now in its fifth year, the Laboratory Managers Conference continues to bring you the up-to-date, mission-critical information, tools, advice and checklists to enable you go from good, through better and to arrive at best business practice for your laboratory in your industry.

This two-day conference is preceded by a choice of three, optional one-day workshops that are designed to complement and enhance the content of the conference. The workshop facilitators are highly skilled practitioners in their chosen fields and bring a wealth of expertise to the table.

Networking is a key feature of the conference and to maximise interaction numbers are limited. Additionally, for the first time, this year there will be concurrent sessions to enhance the ability to learn and interact in an environment of your industry peers.

As well, the conference dinner, morning and afternoon teas provide ample, additional opportunities for networking amongst other delegates and the trade exhibitors.

Conference program

The conference content will be centred around four major themes:

• Regulatory affairs and workplace health and safety
• Personnel and personal development
• Environment and sustainability
• Asset planning, management and auditing

There is an emphasis on regulatory awareness/compliance, the employee as your most important asset and chemical inventory safety and security. These issues have increasing impact as time goes by.

Presentation topics:

• Sustainable and productive laboratories
• Personnel wellbeing and retention
• Striving for zero harm in a diverse work environment
• Dealing with hazardous materials
• Data/database security and warehousing
• Records management
• Chemical inventory management and chemical security
• Cultural change and adaptation
• Continuity of business planning
• Case study: the anatomy of a major OHS incident

Optional Laboratory Tours

Monday 22 November:

Australian Laboratory Services, Stafford facility

OR

University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research

Royal Brisbane Hospital

Concurrent workshops

Laboratory implementation of Lean 6-Sigma

This workshop offers an overview of the skills and technologies of Lean Operations and 6-Sigma Problem Solving that have brought radical performance improvement to thousands of companies worldwide. It adopts ‘the production perspective’, seeing your operation as a chain of value-creating activities for serving consumers’ needs efficiently and profitably. This approach and the range of tools used is often an eye-opening experience allowing new opportunities to be seen for radical change and improvement.

Laboratory people and organisational culture

Staff supervision is a core activity in laboratory management, requiring significant effort and diligence. It is potentially also a source of major improvement in the daily operations of many labs, particularly relating to efficiency, productivity, staff turnover and organisational resilience and adaptability. Difficult staff, conflict between staff, technical versatility and adaptability, employee engagement, and organisational systems and culture all have an impact. These issues and more will be considered in an interactive, participative format.

Australian labs and global compliance: chemical safety in a nutshell

As is well known, laboratories are subject to a wide range of regulatory compliance issues, many of which are dynamic in nature, and constantly changing. This workshop is to interactively discuss aspects of the following issues, under the guidance of an experienced facilitator very familiar with the area. Whilst information rich, the emphasis is on participation and group discussion.

Topics to be addressed include:

• Laboratory regulation and compliance in Australia
• Overview of the legislative structure - acts, regulations, standards and codes
• Victoria Dangerous Goods Regulations and sunset clauses
• Chemical registration, regulation and control bodies: NICNAS, APVMA, FSANZ, OCS, TGA, SWAC, EPA, ADG, IATA, IMDG, SUSDP
• Australian standards for storage and handling of chemicals, gases, drugs, poisons, hazardous substances, dangerous goods
• (M)SDS and labels - use and preparation
• Due diligence, duty of care, risk assessments
• National OHS Harmonisation (National Uniformity of OHS Regs - Workplace Chemicals), REACH, GHS, and implementations elsewhere
• Management systems (quality, environment, OHS, laboratory)

For more information and to register online, go to: www.labmanagers.org.au.