Strategic planning tools for the analytical manager

A rather different type of symposium was held at the 1986 Pittsburgh Conference’, one that was directed at the managers of analytical operations. The format of the symposium was more or less conventional there were speakers followed by a panel discussion but the content of the symposium was unconventional. Talks were given about everything from future directions to quality assurance to chemometrics to recent advances in the technology of analytical chemistry. Interest and attendance were high. This symposium was arranged by Gene Schneider and Gerst Gibbon as an experiment, and it was successful. Frank Plankey (Baird Corporation) in leading off the symposium, pointed out that these are exciting times in analytical chemistry. The technology is changing rapidly. We do things routinely today that used to be state-of-the-art. The importance and value of analytical chemistry are recognized more than ever. Communication and collaboration with customers and other’ disciplines are improving. And finally, support for analytical chemistry, both in dollars and by other disciplines, is good today. The question is: ‘What strategies should we take to assure that analytical chemistry continues to be a current, capable, and valuable field?‘. Plankey pointed out that there has been an increase in the naivete of laboratory managers in the last decade, relative to how to use modern technology in their laboratories. The advent and explosive growth of computers and computer technology in analytical chemistry have left many managers with less than adequate computer literacy. With the increasing use of computers in the laboratory, not only for the analytical methodology itself but also for non-procedural programming, chemometrics, artificial intelligence, and laboratory information management systems, it behooves the current manager to work at his computer literacy and take steps to change with the technology. Plankey thinks that a UNIX like operating system will be the operating system of the future insofar as analytical communications are concerned, and he points out that some exciting things are in the wings, such as voice recognition systems and self-validating and self-calibrating instruments and procedures. He also mentioned some exciting concepts in expert systems, natural language programming, machine vision, and the inference engine. Plankey asked two questions: ‘Are we abdicating responsibility by providing only data?‘, and ‘Should we not focus more attention on providing information?‘. Harry Hertz, of the Center for Analytical Chemistry, National Bureau of Standards, spoke about quality assurance in the analytical laboratory. His talk might be described as a contrast of the state-of-the-art with the state-of-the-practice. Key questions for managers are ‘What can be done today to assure that today’s results are comparable with tomorrow’s results?‘, and ‘What can we do to develop improved (e.g., more efficient) methods when standard methods are specified?‘. Hertz noted a trend toward trying to obtain base-line and long-term data for environmental and regulatory purposes, and he also noted the continuing problem that we as analytical chemists have with intercomparisons. Hertz’s position is that the users of analytical data should specify their requirements of those data, and the producers of the