10 Reasons Why Cable Management is Essential in Pharmaceutical Lab Environments

Lab environments in pharmaceutical facilities are staffed by busy and skilled employees doing important work using sophisticated equipment. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that cable management doesn’t get much attention. It’s a matter of plug everything in, get it working, and then get on with the job. The reality, however, is that cable management is crucially important.

Before going further, let’s look at what we mean by cable management. The first image below is from a client facility before our team put in place a cable management plan. There are cables everywhere, it’s impossible to see what goes where, and the corridor between the two rows of HPLCs is unusable and unsafe.

The second image shows the same area after we tidied the cables and implemented a cable management strategy. There is now more structure and organisation, and it is possible to walk the corridor behind the HPLCs.

The Importance of Cable Management in Labs

Proper cable management can reduce full lifecycle equipment costs and prevent interruptions to lab operations. Cable management also has an important role to play in health and safety.

It’s then helpful to look at the laboratory and IT strategies that apply in forward-thinking pharmaceutical labs. Those strategies will lead to a growing use of advanced technologies which, in turn, means more cables.

Therefore, the time to get on top of the cable situation in your lab is now. To put this into even sharper focus, here are the 10 main reasons why cable management is essential in pharma labs.

10 Reasons to Implement Effective Cable Management in Your Lab

Assists in Troubleshooting

Error troubleshooting is made significantly more difficult when the cables running your lab equipment are a mess. With an effective cable management strategy, technicians and engineers can easily identify what each cable is doing. Quicker and more accurate troubleshooting can also save money, both in terms of repair costs and the fact the equipment will become operational again faster.

Example of efficient cable management in a lab environment.

Easier to Maintain

The equipment in your lab needs to be properly maintained to ensure it produces accurate results and operates as expected. Regular maintenance also prevents breakdowns and unplanned downtime. The process of servicing your equipment is considerably easier when the cables are tidy.

Easier to Scale and Upgrade

For many of the reasons mentioned in the above two points, it will be easier to scale your lab operations, upgrade your equipment, and improve your IT infrastructure when the cables are properly organised and labelled.

Improved Cooling and Airflow

The laboratory and IT equipment that operates in your lab must be kept cool. It’s also important there is a good flow of air. Both are hampered when the cables are untidy. This can lead to faults and breakdowns – breakdowns that effective cable management can help to avoid.

Reduced Signal Interference

Cables that are kinked or twisted will perform at a suboptimal level. As this can impact your equipment, it’s important that the kinking or twisting of cables is prevented through proper cable management.

Reduced Risk of Cable Damage

Cables can be damaged when they are kinked or twisted, rendering them useless. Messy cables are also at risk of physical damage, such as being tripped on. Cable management helps to prevent cable damage.

Extends the Usable Life of Cables

Following on from the two points above, there will be less of a need to replace cables when they are kept tidy.

Improved Safety of Employees

As you can see from the image above, messy cables create unnecessary risks for employees working in pharmaceutical labs, including tripping risks. In the second image, you can also see that cable management substantially mitigates these risks.

Improved Productivity

Employees are happier and more productive when their work areas are clean and tidy.

Easier to Keep Areas Clean

We can again refer to the images earlier in the blog as you can see in the first image it would be next to impossible to keep the floor, benches, cables, or equipment clean. This problem is corrected in the second image with effective cable management.

Tidying the Cables in Your Lab

While cable management won’t be the biggest investment made in your lab over the next year, it will deliver a range of benefits and return on investment. At Westbourne IT, we have experience implementing cable management strategies for both lab and IT equipment. Get in touch today to discuss your requirements.