Case Study: ALCOA achieves scalable, instrument-integrated LIMS processing 53,000 samples/year with LabVantage Solutions

Alcoa - Customer Case Study

Alcoa, the world’s leading producer of primary and fabricated aluminum, needed a modern, extensible LIMS to replace a mature in‑house system and meet corporate hardware/software standards while supporting diverse testing laboratories, heavy throughput (18 hours/day, 6 days/week), and integration of a proprietary analysis package and nonstandard metal‑analysis instruments. After vendor presentations and a successful test run, LabVantage Solutions’ LABVANTAGE LIMS was selected for its development capabilities and extensibility.

LabVantage Solutions implemented LABVANTAGE (went live October 2001; analysis module added January 2002), using LIMSLink and custom Visual BASIC tasks to integrate multiple instruments and workflows. The system now supports 50 users, processes about 53,000 samples per year (over 450,000 determinations) across more than 8,000 internal jobs at the site, and has enabled added functionality such as business metrics, non‑conformance tracking and ongoing modules for training, calibration, precious metals inventory, JSAs and web job submission—delivering measurable gains in throughput and tracking.

Alcoa