Transforming lab operations with Smart Inventory Management Solution on AWS
The objective
Implementing an automated system for tracking and managing lab inventory, which provides real-time visibility into stock levels, will enhance operational efficiency, ultimately optimizing lab operations.
The challenge
- Lack of inventory visibility: Difficulty in tracking lab consumables and raw materials across multiple sites, leading to inefficiencies and inaccurate stock counts
- Manual tracking: Heavy reliance on manual tracking methods is time-consuming, tedious and prone to human error, leading to inaccurate data and poor decision-making
- Inefficient asset management: Challenges in managing the lifecycle of inventory, impacting efficiency in lab operations and complicating asset maintenance and planning
- Limited scalability: Existing inventory systems lack the flexibility to expand and adapt across different lab sites or accommodate future business growth
- Poor data integration: Difficulty integrating inventory data with other business systems, e.g., Jaeger. This prevents comprehensive data analysis and hinders end-to-end operational insights
- Inconsistent reporting: Lack of automated, consistent reports for inventory tracking, leading to delays and inaccuracies
- Limited process of managing expiry and safety stock notification: Difficult to follow FEFO/FIFO, no automated re-order mechanism
The solution
HCLTech implemented its Intelligent Asset Tracking and Management (IATM) SMT solution to address the inventory management challenges. The solution was rolled out from lab inventory tracking and management at the company's Building 48, NBW site. The system architecture leverages a robust Amazon Web Services (AWS) suite to deliver real-time visibility, automation and scalability.
- RFID-Based Tracking of Lab Materials
- The core of the tracking system uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The solution automates the tracking of lab assets and consumables by deploying fixed and handheld RFID readers alongside unique RFID tags. This eliminates manual processes, reduces errors and provides instant, accurate location and usage data
- IATM Middleware integrated with Amazon MQ: Deployed to collect real-time asset tracking data from the middleware. Amazon MQ also facilitates inter-service communication, acting as a shock absorber to ensure robust data transfer
- Amazon EventBridge: Executes scheduled jobs (e.g., automated email notifications) and triggers API calls and performs publishing of data to the customer system at regular intervals, e.g., publish consumption details, expiry notifications emails
- AWS SQS and SNS: Used for decoupled communication between services, enabling a microservices architecture. SQS handles messaging queues, while SNS manages notifications for events like low quantity and expiry alerts
- Real-time multi-site tracking of assets
- The system was configured to meet specific operational needs through priority use case setup, including Multi-Site Tracking, which enables seamless asset tracking across different laboratory locations
- Boxes, Pallets, material and containers were tagged with RFID passive Tags and tracked through the RTLS-IATM solution
- AWS VPC and Subnets: Provides a secure, private network environment for deploying all AWS and IATM back services
- AWS Direct Connect and VPN Gateway are used to establish secure, private network connections between the customer's on-prem network, where the Middleware is deployed and the AWS cloud
- An AWS Application Load Balancer distributes application traffic across multiple microservices to ensure high availability and performance for both data processing and mobile app workloads
- AWS CloudFront and WAF: Accelerates content delivery and enhances security by caching content at edge locations and protecting against common web exploits. AWS Route 53 manages domain name resolution for the solution
- Inventory visibility and grouping
- Inventory visibility: Provides a single, unified view of all inventories across multiple sites
- Inventory grouping: Allows for logical grouping of inventory for simplified management and reporting based on zones, usage, project and part number
- Better asset lifecycle management by automatically consuming assets in defined zones and readers. QR code-based scanning added more control over the inventory consumption process by enabling partial consumption, or returning to inventory at any stage of the business use case, as required
- To collect the tracking information and process data from middleware, IATM backend microservices were deployed on Amazon ECS and AWS ECR was used to store the services’ Docker images
- AWS IAM: Manages user permissions and access control for all AWS resources and IATM services
- AWS KMS: Manages the encryption keys for sensitive data, such as that stored in the RDS database
- AWS CloudWatch and X-Ray: CloudWatch monitors application metrics and logs for all microservices, while X-Ray provides end-to-end request tracing for debugging and performance analysis on need basis
- AWS Cloud Trail: Tracks user activity and API calls for auditing and compliance purposes
- AWS Config: Verifies and evaluates the configuration of all AWS resources for compliance
- Data integration and reporting
- Integration with existing business systems (such as SAP, LIMS and Jaeger) was achieved via CSV file uploads, with further options for API integration. This enables comprehensive data insights and a consolidated view of operations. The solution also generates customized inventory tracking reports for improved visibility and data-driven decision-making
- Amazon RDS Aurora for MySQL: An Amazon RDS for MySQL database was implemented as the central data store for all asset and inventory information from the zones. This managed database instance is used by the various IATM backend microservices (e.g., AssetMgmt, SmtAsset and UserMgmt) to persist their respective data
- Amazon S3 stores web application resources, images, pages and logs, while Amazon CloudFront accelerates content delivery to end users globally. S3 was also used to store and run the CF Template and transfer the Docker images to customer environments
- Interactive dashboards and reporting are powered by secured APIs exposed via Amazon API Gateway. AWS Lambda provides authorization for requests routed through an Application Load Balancer (ALB). These APIs serve data to the IATM web and mobile applications
- Strategic expansion support
- HCLTech conducted a thorough ROI analysis and developed a value creation framework to support future scaling of the solution. This will allow for seamless expansion of the system to other lab sites, ensuring long-term efficiency gains as your operations grow
- Solution deployment and system integration
- This sophisticated, AWS-native architecture ensures the solution is not only highly effective in addressing immediate inventory challenges but is also secure, scalable and built for future growth
- AWS CloudFormation was used to run the IATM cloud formation template to create the required Infrastructure, AWS services, resources and IATM APIs
- AWS Systems Manager: Used for accessing EC2 instances and managing patches
- AWS Parameter Store: Securely stores application properties and secret keys for microservices and Lambda functions
- AWS Developer Tools: Implements CI/CD pipelines in the development environment using Code Commit, Code Pipeline, Code Build and Code Deploy
- AWS Cost Explorer and Calculator: Visualizes and analyzes AWS resource costs for budget management and optimization
The impact
- Proactive lifecycle and stock management with real-time alerts and automated FEFO/FIFO rules, enabling a 50–60% reduction in wastage
- Real-time tracking of consumables and raw materials delivered increased inventory visibility and 75–90% improvement in accuracy, reducing human error
- Automated consumption tracking, QR-based returns and streamlined material movement reduced handling time and delivered a 15% productivity gain
- Interactive dashboards and customizable reports delivered end-to-end inventory visibility, with a scalable design to support business growth
- Cost savings in operational activities by approximately 60%
