***Beginning September 1st, Eppendorf's ELBE add-on will be discontinued and removed from the Marketplace. Customers who have installed the ELBE add-on should export any data stored within their ELBE experiment sections, as it will no longer be accessible beyond this date.***


The workflow execution provides full guidance through all steps of a workflow with data capture for reagents and devices used as well as protocol deviations. 


Important:

One experiment could contain several Enhanced LaB Execution sections that are in different stages of the process. The information of sections is not linked. The workflow execution is optimized to be used on a mobile device (e.g. mobile phone or tablet). Open the URL of the application in the browser of your mobile device and enlarge the section by using the “Fullscreen” button to make use of the full device size.


7.1 Sample check-in

Once a workflow was successfully planned, start the execution by clicking “Start Workflow” (Figure 12). The sample check-in window opens. Depending on the labware layout defined during planning you can document a Plate ID, Rack ID, or scan the related barcode. Define a sample name or add more sample information by using the edit button. Select the samples to be processed during the execution by activating the checkboxes. To complete the sample check-in click “confirm”. The execution screen of the first protocol step with the laboratory instruction is displayed. By confirming each step, the user will be guided through the process.

                   

Figure 12: Initial steps of workflow execution.

7.2 Guided execution

To be guided through the experiment you need to click “confirm” to complete each step then the next protocol step opens. Repeat the whole procedure for the remaining protocol steps. The execution can be stopped and continued according to your requirements. 

To document a laboratory device, click on the edit button (Figure 13, 3). Enter a device name or scan the barcode of a device. Contextualize each protocol by adding annotations. Click on the menu (Figure 13, 4) and select “Add Annotation” (Figure 13, 7). Select the type of annotation and enter a comment. The annotation is time and user tracked and displayed on the respective protocol step. Annotations can be added to current or already completed steps. An overview of the execution progress and the contextualization can be opened by clicking on the protocol header (Figure 13Figure 8, 1). A color code indicates if the workflow step is planned (gray), running (blue) or completed and write protected (green) (Figure 13, 10). Go back to the execution by using “Go to current step button” (Figure 13, 13). If the option field “Hint” was added to a building block during protocol design the information is highlighted at the respective protocol step (Figure 13, 12).



     

Figure 13 Guided execution and contextualization


To abort an experiment, click on the menu button and then on Abort (Figure 13, 8). Experiments can be aborted at any stage of the execution. Add a reason why the experiment was aborted and click on Confirm. The aborted workflow is closed and transferred to the Workflow Documentation stage.


If the last step of a protocol is reached, the Finish Protocol button appears. To complete the protocol, click on Finish Protocol. The message Protocol completed appears and you can continue executing the following protocol by click on Confirm. If the last step of the workflow is reached, the Finish Workflow button appears.


7.3 Remove samples from execution

To open the sample list during the experiment, click (as depicted in Figure 14) on the menu button (Figure 14 ,A) and then “Open Sample List” (Figure 14, B). An overview of all samples and the corresponding positions on the labware is displayed (Figure 14 ,C). Select the desired sample and click “Remove Sample” (Figure 14 ,D). Enter a description, if required that will be stored with user and timestamp for the corresponding step. 


Figure 14: Removing samples from execution.


A confirmation of the deleted sample will show up (Figure 15).The pipetting instruction will be updated, and the removed position is no longer displayed.


Figure 15. Confirmation after removing samples in execution.