How to Review Results and Approve Samples

This tutorial goes over various methods to approve samples.  When specification and sqc status are pass, group sample approval can be used to make the approval process faster.  For detailed review of results, single sample approval is the most appropriate.  When Spec Status is something other then PASS, approval with a waiver is necessary.

Final status in LIMS should indicate what will happen to the product. When final status is "A" approved, the CoA is created and product is ready to be sent to customer. When final status is anything other than "A" a CoA will not be created, because it's assumed that product would not be sent to customer and thus no CoA should be necessary. Final statuses are important for Pass Yield reports, so even when samples are failed, cancelled rejected or being reworked it's important to assign the final status for accuracy on these reports.

1. Single Sample Approval

  1. When results are entered into LIMS they are automatically validated again specification limits.  Spec status "PASS" means that all results entered are within the specification limits.  
  2. When results are passing they will mark as being validated in two locations on the sample Status with a "V" and on the result status as "ev" entered and validated
  3. Press the thumbs up button to approve the sample
  4. Open a drop down to select the final approval status. (If final status is "A" do not need to expand the drop down, because "A" is default selection)
  5. Click on final status to select
  6. Click save to approve the sample
  7. Page will refresh to the sample with Sample Status "A"
  8. Click binoculars to refresh the page and see the "COA" link
  9. Click to view CoA

When final approval status is "A" approved, do not open the drop down because "A" is a default selection.

It takes the system up to 2 minutes to enforce the event for CoA creation, thus the CoA link might not be visible until that time has passed.

1.1. Re-approving a Sample

LIMS keeps track of how many times a sample is approved.  When a sample is approved more then 1 time, you will be prompted to enter "Approval Notes" this is because we'd like to document in LIMS why a sample required to be re-approved.

  1. A prompt will show when you try to approve a sample that has been previously approved.  Click "OK"
  2. Put in approval notes of why the sample needed to be re-approved
  3. Click save button again to assign final status
  4. Information on count of approvals can be found in "Sample Descriptive" section under "Audit Info"

2. Group Sample Approval

When items have specifications defined for each parameter, and LIMS validates that all parameters PASS specification limits (Spec Status = PASS), you can perform a group approval to save time.

2.1. Search for Completed Samples

  1. Browse samples screen allows you to search by samples status.  Enter status "V" or "C" (designates all samples which have all results entered)
  2. Click binoculars to execute search
  3. Select checkbox next to samples you'd like to group approve
  4. Click thumbs up button to approve
  5. Assign final status (must be the same for all samples selected for approval)
  6. Click save to approve
  7. Page will refresh to show samples approved

Sample approval has multiple steps behind the scene in LIMS.  Steps like Create CoA, email the CoA... for this reason it is not recommended to approve more then 10 samples at one time.  Also keep in mind that it takes the system up to 2 minutes to enforce the event for CoA creation, so not all 10 sample CoA's will be available instantly, the systems needs time to create them.  Should take no longer then 5 minutes for 10 sample group approval.

3. Approving with a Waiver

  1. When a sample has a spec status of "FAIL" one or more of the results did not pass external specifications. If that lot is still deemed ok for shipment to the customer, it can be approved with final status "A" but LIMS will require a waiver ID. Waiver ID comes from a document that defines how or why this lot is still allowed to be sent to customers even being outside of specification limits.  Sometimes customers request product that is outside of specification limits for their own testing, so waiver process can be used in that situation.
  1. Type in Waiver ID into the cell
  2. Follow steps to approve the sample by clicking the thumbs up button
  3. Assign final status
  4. If you did not already put in a waiver you can put it in at the approval step
  5. Click Save

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