Scope of the presentation
         • Introduction
         •                           th
           Potential Impacts of the 4  Industrial Revolution on Laboratories
         • Testing techniques – methodologies
         • Food for thought - considerations
      Introduction
      • Fourth Industrial Revolution – “a new era that builds and extends the 
       impact of digitization in new and unanticipated ways” (Davis, 2016).
       Revolution 1 – Year:      Revolution 3 – Year: 
       1784 (steam, water,       1969 (electronics, IT 
      mechanical production       and automated 
         equipment)                production)
                    Revolution 2 – Year:       Revolution 4 – 
                     1870 (division of        Year: ???? (cyber-
                    labour, electricity       physical systems), 
                      and mass                Klaus Schwab in 
                      production)                2016
                                                                                          th
               Potential Impacts of the 4  Industrial Revolution
                •  Automation
                -  Semi-automated data management (capturing and manipulation) versus fully                                                                 v/s
                   automated data management (capturing and manipulation)
                •  Technological advancement
                                                                                                                                                            v/s
                -  Manual laboratory activities versus automated activities.
                •  Laboratory infrastructure
                -  Environmental control where manual thermometers are used versus automated                                                           v/s
                   environmental control.
                •  Country economical development level                                                                                                   v/s
                - Laboratories from developing countries are mostly focused on labour intensive 
                manual methodologies   versus laboratories in developed countries employing a 
                higher percentage of automation i.e. instrumental analysis.
              Testing techniques - methodologies
              •  Mohr method (argentometric titrations)
              -  Most affordable method, unable to distinguish 
                 between different sources of the determinant 
                     -
                 (Cl)
                                                                                    Chemical Reaction of Mohr Method
              •  Potentiometric method (auto-titration)                                   Source: www.BCLearningNetwork.com (Colgur, 2014)
              -  Fairly affordable method, can handle reasonable 
                 number of samples but still will fail to distinguish 
                                                                  -
                 different sources of the determinant (Cl)
              •  Elemental analysis (Inductively Coupled 
                 Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer, ICP-
                 OES)
              - Expensive method, very selective and accurate 
              thus also can handle large sample numbers 
              Food for thought - considerations
              •  Competitiveness of the laboratory
              -  Investment in instrumentation (preferably fairly recent technologies)
              -  Infrastructure (environmental controls and proper IT platforms)
              -  Training/retraining of personnel to be competent with recent methodologies
              -  Quality costs (participation in Proficiency Testing schemes, continuous improvement, maintenance of the quality 
                 management systems)