Revol LIMS Implementation at HINDALCO’s Renukoot Plant

Abstract

Hindalco’s Renukoot plant was commissioned in 1962 with one plotline and a smelter of 20,000 tpa capacity. Over the years the plant has increased its capacity through various brownfield expansions and asset-sweating measures.

Today Hindalco, at Renukoot, having smelting capacity of 4,10,000 tpa at present, operates across the aluminum value chain from bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminum smelting to downstream rolling and extrusions. The integrated facility houses an alumina refinery and smelter along with facilities for production of semi-fabricated products namely conductor redraw rods, sheet and extrusions.

Renukoot has earned the Integrated Management System (IMS) certification combining quality, environment and occupational health and safety into one business excellence model. The unit has been a recipient of several national and international awards in quality, environment management, and energy conservation, among others.

Business And Operational Challenges

Hindalco wanted to automate their workflows and further streamline their highly complex sample management processes. Some of the challenges faced by the company include:

The Solution

Investing in a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) which is light and easy to adopt is the key to address the challenges facing laboratories.

Key Benefits of Revol LIMS are:

The LIMS implementation process follows four steps:

1. Data Population:
There are two common ways in which laboratory data and required fields are populated into the system. The user can choose to manually populate all of the data in the system, which is often a tedious tasks. If you implement LIMS, users supply master data to the solution's administrators, who use pre-configured templates to easily and rapidly populate required fields.

2. Training:
Every staff member will need training to properly use the LIMS. Training is commonly conducted through completing self-paced guides and reading reference materials on the functions that will help their day-to-day responsibilities.

3. Validation:
Validation is a critical in any LIMS system. Some LIMS solutions offer extensive customization options which requires validation for the entire system for the final implementation, which can take extra time and money. With a Revol LIMS solution, the system is pre-validated, and provides administrators with validation packages, which they can accept depending on the risk tolerance of the lab.

4. Implementation:
Once validation is completed, the LIMS is ready to go live. Laboratories can start testing their samples, generating data, and automatically tracking results.

HIL REVOL LIMS Connectivity Diagram

Why Hindalco chose Revol LIMS

To overcome data management and operational challenges, HIL decided to upgrade its sample management system. Revol LIMS team preconfigured the product in line with the required workflows and demonstrated the product. HIL zeroed in on Revol LIMS, a cloud-based LIMS, to overcome their data management and operational challenges. The Revol LIMS team conducted multiple training sessions to accelerate the process. Revol LIMS supports HIL in the following ways.

Compliance Management

Revol LIMS enables compliance with ISO 17025.

Role of Revol LIMS in ISO 17025 Compliance:

Secure File Transfer

Files/ Data transferring happen over a computer network through SFTP and Firewall. It ensures data security in Cloud Computing.

Reduces Manual Work and Time

Role and User based Permissions

With Revol LIMS Hindalco is able to assign role-and user based access rights to employees and customers, safeguarding confidential data

Powerful Scheduler Engine

Automatically register more than 2000 pre-planned samples on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual and cycle basis using Revol- sample scheduler.

Effective Sample Management

Sample Flow

Inventory Management

Instrument Management

Customized Test Reports