While life sciences companies strive to accelerate their research and development process to get drugs approved and into the market quickly, the average timeline for developing a new drug remains approximately 10-15 years.
Improving the speed and efficiency of R&D processes can help increase a company’s competitive advantage, reduce costs, and improve its financial performance in the short and long term. A key to this improvement lies in knowing where inefficiencies and issues exist so that an organization can focus on fixing them while modernizing its overall systems to build a Lab of the Future.
MachineQ commissioned Censuswide, an independent research firm, to conduct a survey polling more than 400 U.S.-based pharma professionals at life sciences companies with over $1 billion dollars in annual revenue to gain insight into the current state of lab operations. The survey’s findings shed light on the key challenges lab professionals face, technology gaps that impact asset management practices, and opportunities to improve efficiency.
The Current State: Survey Respondents Reveal Asset Management Challenges and Technology Gaps
A closer look at the data reveals specific obstacles labs face in managing and tracking assets, and how leveraging technology effectively presents a tremendous opportunity to improve operational workflows.
The key findings included:
- 60% reported experiencing significant downtime due to equipment failures, missed calibration schedules, and difficulty locating lab assets.
- 44% ranked limited visibility into the location (and quantity) of their assets among their top concerns.
- 56% monitor asset utilization manually.
- 14% do not have any system in place for monitoring asset utilization.
- Only 30% use real-time asset utilization monitoring technology.
Looking Ahead: 85% of Lab Professionals Plan to Adopt IoT as Part of Their Lab of the Future Strategy
Survey findings pointed to emerging technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) playing a key role in modernizing lab operations in the future by providing actionable insights that drive productivity, speed, and innovation.
Among other key data points from the survey:
- IoT and AI/ML are emerging as key technologies, with 29% and 28% of labs currently using them, respectively.
- Over the next two years, 85% plan to adopt IoT, and 87% intend to adopt AI/ML.
The survey results highlight a clear need for modernization in life sciences labs, with significant challenges stemming from outdated equipment, ineffective asset tracking, and inefficient processes. However, the findings also reveal a promising shift—lab professionals recognize the potential of IoT, AI, and ML to transform their operations. As the adoption of these technologies accelerates, the industry is poised to build more efficient, data-driven, and resilient labs that drive innovation and productivity.
For more survey results, including data on planned equipment spending, and insights and analysis of all the findings, download the full survey report.
.jpg)
