Hi Ken,
The most important facet of your question is an understanding of the needs
of your users. We spent considerable time analyzing previous use patterns,
talking to users from the busiest (and/or most demanding) labs, and learning
the goals of our users before we established our instrument use policies
about 6 years ago. We then imparted our understanding of instrument scheduling
capabilities to make our best guess at what would work well.
Five of our seven systems operate in full automation mode, 24/7, with a
distinction made between day and night - we’ve set the software so
that every user has a maximum allowed (per day) daytime use limit, and
unlimited nighttime use. Night includes the weekend; short experiments are
allowed during the day, longer experiments are run overnight or on the
weekend. There is no VT use in automation - the risk of inadvertantly boiling
a sample isn’t worth the functionality gain for us. About 85% of our
NMR use is via automation.
Two of our systems are run manually through our reservation system, which
limits daytime use and allows instruments to be reserved in multiples of 10
minute blocks. One of these systems is used for variable-temperature (both
high and low), and is switched to solid-state use one full day per week. Users
of these systems are specifically trained for the type of experiment they
wish to run, but we also help when they want us to. We will also train users
to use automation functionality on manual systems for specific projects,
within the standard limits. Our reservation system works well with our billing
system (we use the linux ‘last’ approach), so it’s
really not a burden.
If a user wants to do continuous kinetics, we direct them to the manual
instruments; if they need to do spot kinetics, we’ll give them
automation priority access so that they can submit a series of experiments
on a single sample at various times during the day, and put them on a relatively
quiet automation system. The automation will go back and forth between the
timed samples and regular automation samples reasonably well, although we
keep an eye on any conflicts.
We never bill for reserved time that is unused, and we have virtually no wasted
time. The lab is busy enough that if someone doesn’t show up for their
reserved time, a user will jump on the system, and our billing system
doesn’t care either way.
Finally, we’ve designed the overall system to be relatively flexible
and modular, and we keep track of use patterns overall - the specific day/night
allowances, short/long experiment times, reservation blocks, etc. could all
be changed if we need to change them. We haven’t had to make any
changes in the past six years, but if we lost an instrument or two…
I hope this helps.
Best,
Walt
-------------------------------
Walter Massefski, Ph.D.
Director
Department of Chemistry Instrumentation Facility
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Mass. Ave. Rm: 18-0090
Cambridge, MA 02139
T: (617) 253-2016
wwm_at_mit.edu
> On Oct 6, 2023, at 1:53 PM, Kenneth Sharp-Knott via groups.io <kknott=vt.edu_at_groups.io> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> We are fortunate (in my opinion) to have automation available on 5 of our
> seven instruments and run all in a walkup queued use mode most of the time.
> This allows for the most efficient utilization of instrument time and is
> the easiest to manage as well as handle billing. Users pay only for
> experiment acquisition time as all processing is done remotely. Requests
> to reserve this instrument for kinetics or VT work are made through the staff
> and the instrument is simply dropped out of automation for that period of time.
>
> However there is a growing competing need for 'reserved use' time on one
> particular instrument featuring a LN2 cooled broadband probe. I'm trying
> to decide on the best way to manage this instrument and still maintain
> efficient use of it.
>
> I have thought about making it available for reservation (at least 24 hours
> in advance) 2 days out of the week.
>
> I'm curious about how other facilities handle this situation. In our case,
> this particular instrument is in high demand by all of our user bases, so
> the most efficient use in a walkup queue mode works well - for most.
>
> Another question relates to billing. If someone reserves the instrument
> and doesn't show - do you charge them for the time? If they book it for 8
> hours to run a 3 minute proton every 1/2 hour, do you charge them for 8
> hours or 48 minutes?
>
> I personally loathe to go back to a reservation system as it required far
> more oversight and work. I vastly prefer the efficiency of a queued walkup
> system, but not everyone's needs suit this model.
>
> Looking forward to your thoughts and experiences.
>
> --
> Ken Sharp-Knott
> Manager of Analytical Services and the NMR Facility
> Department of Chemistry
> Virginia Tech
>
> (540)267-6502 (Cell)
> (540)231-0885 (Office)
>
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Received on Tue Oct 10 2023 - 08:03:07 MST