New Year, New Opportunities!
Happy New Year! I trust 2025 finds you optimistic about opportunities in the upcoming year.
As I look at the success and growth of R18LabQMS, it has been an amazing journey to see a mere idea back in 2011 grow into what it is today, serving both accredited and non-accredited laboratories.
Today we serve laboratories in over 40 U.S. states including Hawaii and Alaska, along with Canada, universities, and state DOTs. Our first user came on board two weeks after the launch of version 1.0 on March 1st, 2013 and is still a user today!
Planning for 2025
We are in the planning stages for V3.0 coming in 2025. In 2024 V2.9 took a different path during the planning and development stages and formed a Collaboration Team (CT) that was made up of ‘power users’ to share their input and that worked out well. For V3.0 we would like to continue with a new group of CT participants. If you want to participate, please contact us and we will throw your name in the hat. Please note we will be limiting the number of CT Members to four. We have tentative plans to meet up for dinner at the June ASTM meeting in Toronto, Canada.
Collaboration Team (CT)
The planning process for making a major upgrade requires significant effort, and it all starts with brainstorming and ideas and input from users and the accreditation body. The idea of having ‘power users’ involved is that they will have the most in-depth experience and will provide great input for enhancements and functionality.
The process
- Have the CT share specific items to upgrade/address
- After reviewing all items, they will be prioritized and placed in specific categories, i.e., nice to haves, need to be addressed, affects functionality, and needs to be addressed to meet the R18 Standard. The R18LabQMS Program Manager (PM) will share the initial request of upgrades with the development team for a quote.
- After reviewing the quote, the PM will make necessary adjustments to the quote as needed.
- Once the quote is approved by the PM, a date will be set for work to begin with an estimated completion date.
- Once work is completed the beta testing phase will begin on the ‘staging site’ that will include the CT.
- Once all beta testing is completed, a launch date will be set to go live on the application.
2025 conferences
In addition to listing the conferences and sponsorships towards the end of the blog, I wanted to highlight the ‘must attend’ conference for 2025. If your lab is either accredited or maintains a QMS, the AASHTO re:source Technical Exchange is a MUST ATTEND! You will hear and learn from the best of the best when it comes to laboratory accreditation, and maintaining a QMS following the guidelines of AASHTO R18. As a side note: the food is always a notch above the rest, believe me, I can’t say that about other conferences. Also, the evening events (off-site receptions) are always delightful. This year the AASHTO re:source Technical Exchange will be held in Bellevue, WA, just outside of Seattle, WA. March 17-20, 2025.
User question
Q: I deactivated a user within our account, and later wanted to re-activate them, is this possible?
A: Yes! All that needs to be done is go to the Users Tab/select user View/Edit User/User is active (Y/N?). Here’s what users have done in the past: once a user was deactivated, they would replace a new user’s information into the old user’s page(edit) prior to deactivating. They were actually creating the deactivated user as a new user. In this case please keep it simple. If you want to create a new user, do exactly that by clicking the New User Tab. If you want to deactivate a user click the ‘User is Active’ (Y/N?). To re-activate a user click ‘User is Active’ (Y/N?).
Training and customer service
Getting started happens within the setup process. It’s intuitive and follows the sections that require procedures within the management and technical sections. Each section number within the setup process corresponds to AASHTO R18. You can either enter your procedure Itself for each section or upload a file with the details of the procedure. I always tell labs during a demo that it’s much like a ‘Turbo Tax’ experience as it walks you through each step.
Once you have completed the setup process, or wish to move on to the Dashboard View, just click Save Progress and Exit Setup in the upper right-hand corner. It’s straightforward and intuitive.
Upon exiting the setup process, there will be a dialog box that pops up asking you if you would like to add additional ASTM Quality Standards, and their sub-standards, i.e., D3666 (aggregate).
Additional Training needed to jump-start the onboarding process:
Virtual training
We target a specific area for training and limit the time to one hour. An example would be adding Equipment Procedures to your Equipment. There is no charge for virtual training limited to 1 hour.
Onsite training
We spend one day in your laboratory to review all aspects of your quality manual and take a deep dive into R18labQMS implementation. This training is fee-based, please inquire.
Resources
Once you work through the setup process, the following links can be found in the lower right-hand corner of the application.
Upcoming Meetings and Sponsorships we will be attending in 2025:
- This is a MUST ATTEND Conference! 2025 AASHTO re:source Technical Exchange March 17-20, 2025, in Bellevue, WA
- AAPT March 10-13 Silver Sponsorship (no attendance)
- ASTM, June 24-26, Toronto.
- Meet and greet R18LabQMS users, lunch sponsor if opportunity presents itself as in the past.
- SEAUPG, November 2025
More Notables
- 10 Year Anniversary Video
- AASHTO re:source Q&A Podcast with Brian Johnson & Kimberly Swanson S2 E18: Moving to a Digital Quality Management System
Gary Irvine, from the Asphalt Institute, joins us to discuss the benefits of moving from a paper QMS to a digital system.
- Please check out our most recent promotional R18LabQMS video .
For all questions regarding your Quality Management System, whether your lab is accredited or not, please contact us and learn how R18LabQMS can add value to your laboratory.
One last favor to ask, if there is a specific topic of discussion you would like to see in upcoming blogs, please send us a note!
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Gary Irvine
R18LabQMS Program and Development Manager