A digital window into your physical lab

Inventory is the Benchling application that enables biotech and pharma scientists to digitally track the physical location and usage of their samples. It connects metadata information to experimental results, which leads to higher quality data and greater efficiency. Inventory is part of Benchling’s secure, cloud-based productivity hub. It consists of a series of modules that are centralized and interconnected to provide recording, tracking, and management of samples or inventory items, data, lab equipment, and teams over the entire lifecycle of a R&D program.

Benchling’s Inventory is a sample management tool that gives you a digital window into your physical lab. It helps manage inventory tracking of reagents, alert replenishment of consumables, and assist in monitoring and re-ordering stockroom items that are frequently used. Teams use Inventory to optimize space usage and keep track of samples. They also use it to monitor expiration dates in real-time and keep the highest quality materials. By providing an overview of real-time inventory and the procurement of samples, Inventory can also help with experimental planning and design. In addition, it will keep a digital record of laboratory freezers and sample stock levels that are stored.

Inventory is one part of Benchling’s LIMS platform that includes Notebook, an electronic lab notebook (ELN), and five other applications that help researchers efficiently and effectively advance their science.

When selecting a laboratory inventory management system, it’s crucial to select a platform that’s customizable to your research needs, can streamline lab workflows, and has functionality that will improve inventory management processes. Just like research, samples, and reagents are not all the same, not all inventory management systems are the same. At Benchling, we have an experienced customer support team that works with your informatics and scientists to implement Benchling modules and parameters to best serve your lab members.

Selecting an inventory solution that does barcode printing and scanning makes lab workflows more efficient. With Benchling Inventory, you can develop integrations for automated data entry. Connect barcode scanners, printers, plate readers, freezers, PCR and sequencing machines, or any lab instrumentation to incorporate automation and speed up processes. Benchling’s Lab Automation functionality is an option for researchers that want to fully automate their instrumentation and link it to laboratory inventory management. In addition, Benchling offers a Registry module, to further link any recorded entity with all downstream samples and results that are produced to give a more comprehensive view of research workflows.

Yes, Benchling Inventory is a cloud-based digital solution for researchers. Scientists are able perform inventory tracking and laboratory inventory management and view updates made to ELN recorded data or information, all in real time.

Scientists should feel confident that their most precious resource — their data and intellectual property (IP) is securely stored in Benchling. Benchling’s data records including the Inventory module and lab inventory management system are designed not only for accuracy, but also for easy retrieval by customers, in accordance with the Electronic Record and Electronic Signature (ERES) requirements outlined in the 21 CFR Part 11 guidance. All data and communication within Benchling is protected at rest using AES 256-bit encryption, and in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption 1.2 or higher. Benchling’s infrastructure is hardened based on security goals, National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, and Center for Internet Security (CIS) controls.

When selecting a laboratory inventory management software, consider one that can seamlessly integrate with an ELN and LIMS, such as Benchling. Having a connected infrastructure that can track and manage samples, reagents, consumables, stockroom inventory, pricing information, raw data, lab instrumentation, and workflows is critical to running efficient and effective R&D programs. With a cloud-based, secure platform like Benchling, scientists can record data entries in Notebook, an ELN, register their samples with Registry, and use Inventory to monitor and track the materials and tie it back to the results throughout the lifecycle of a project. Having the integration of inventory management with a ELN and a LIMS reduces the need to use disparate systems such as Excel, various spreadsheets, or digital solutions that only perform one or the other and are not interconnected. Providing this holistic view of samples, information, and results helps to streamline workflows and gives teams the full picture of their lab and research.