Summer 2008 Issue

By Dennis Higgins, EquipNet Inc.

Some of your organization’s most valuable assets may be in hiding.

When researchers move on to new projects, they often store their old laboratory instrumentation and scientific equipment in storerooms, file cabinets, and desk drawers. They need to make room, but they’re reluctant to let go of the old equipment because it was expensive, and they may want to use it again … someday. Unfortunately, when these idle assets are out of sight, they are also out of mind and losing value.

Here are three different scenarios of how implementing a proper disposition strategy for your lab assets can save your organization time, money, and resources:

Scenario 1
A scientist at a leading pharmaceutical company uses her entire annual equipment budget to purchase a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer. To clear space for the new equipment, she moves her old mass spectrometer to the back storeroom. Meantime, another scientist at a different location within the same company needs a mass spectrometer with the same specifications as the one the first scientist is no longer using. So, the second scientist spends a good chunk of his budget to purchase the same equipment. What if there was a system in place that allowed both scientists to know all the equipment the pharmaceutical company had in each location and which pieces were available to be redeployed? The first scientist would clear out much-needed space in her lab, the second scientist would save money, and the pharmaceutical company would benefit by not buying equipment it already owns.

Scenario 2
The biotech department at a major university just received the green light to research the effects of a new solid-dose vaccine. To move forward, the department needs to equip an entire new lab at a cost of $2.5 million. In the meantime, the biotech department is paying monthly rental fees to the university to store expensive laboratory instrumentation for an injectable vaccine that did not get funded. What if the biotech department was able to send the unused equipment to another space to store it, market it, and sell it for them while it still has value? What if there were no upfront costs for the consignment warehousing? The biotech department would save hundreds in warehouse rental fees and make thousands off the sale of the unused equipment. The extra funds could be used to help pay for the new equipment or attract top researchers with high-salary requirements.

Scenario 3
A leading publicly-owned chemical company has just acquired a private research lab. In order to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, the chemical company’s CFO has to make sure that his physical asset register includes all the equipment that the research lab owns. Unfortunately, the lab managers have been less than thorough in tracking their equipment, and the inventory systems are not linked between their six different facilities. As a result, the chemical company has inherited a number of problems:

• Erroneous accounting of depreciated value for equipment that has been discarded
• Possible non-compliance with federal reporting requirements
• And increased risk of liability for any problems with donated equipment.

What if there was a software program that would allow the CFO to track the new combined company assets right from his desktop? He would have a quality-control system in place to enable him to breathe easier during audit time.

While these scenarios are fictional, they are, nevertheless, based on real-world instances from customers and share a common theme: Surplus asset management is critical to an organization's success. Whether a company is growing, holding steady, or downsizing, valuable equipment is worth a lot more when it comes out of hiding. Knowing exactly what you have and where it's located empowers you with information.

Creating a proactive system for managing your idle equipment can provide access to that information, saving your company millions of dollars and untold hours of lab staff time. How often does an organization purchase expensive equipment that it already owns and is just sitting idle in another location? Imagine how that money could be better spent.

And what about your researchers' time? When lab employees are keeping track of equipment, they aren't doing what they do best. Outsourcing the surplus asset management and disposition of your equipment to the experts allows your company to focus on its core competencies.

For additional information about disposition services, call 1-800 532 4752 or click here to request more information: http://www.thermo.com/com/cda/contactus/home/1,3139,C,00.html.