Agosi: 2,000+ tons of precious metals per year – managed with [FP]-LIMS
How Europe’s leading precious metals refinery from Pforzheim digitized its quality control in 3-shift operation – ISO 17025-accredited, SAP-integrated, fully audit-ready. In use since 2012.
Europe’s Leading Precious Metals Refinery – Since 1891
Anyone familiar with gold, silver and other precious metals knows Agosi. Founded in 1891 as Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt in the gold town of Pforzheim, the company is today the leading recycling provider for precious metals and precious metal services in Europe.
The traditional company from the Black Forest recovers valuable raw materials as fine metals of the highest purity. Thanks to the complete precious metal cycle, Agosi offers an environmentally friendly solution for the availability of gold, silver and platinum group metals.
As part of the Umicore Group, Agosi now operates globally with subsidiaries and plants – without losing sight of the domestic market.
126 Years of Quality Standards – Backed by Hard Numbers
For 126 years, Agosi has reliably supplied the precious metals processing industry with high-quality materials, alloys, semi-finished products and tradable precious metals – produced under strict environmental conditions and to the highest quality standards.
Quality Demand as a Guiding Principle – for More Than 100 Years
Gold bars from Agosi · Image: Agosi
Agosi’s high quality standard is one of the company’s most decisive success factors. Whether quality management, occupational safety or environmental protection: the company sets ambitious benchmarks for itself across many levels.
Customers especially appreciate the consistently high quality of Agosi’s products. To safeguard it, 25 employees in the chemical laboratories continuously monitor product quality in 3-shift operation.
Agosi’s laboratories are accredited for the analysis of precious metal alloys in accordance with DIN EN ISO 17025 – meaning testing and analytical procedures comply with international standards for the certification of starting material for semi-finished precious metal products and officially hallmarked precious metal products.
We wanted to finally bundle our measurement data and bring it electronically into a central database. The manual entry of measurement data was simply very error-prone – and we could only manage statistical evaluations with a lot of effort.
LIMS Software: And Suddenly Everything Got Easier
Stefan Zorn, Head of Chemical Laboratories · Image: Agosi
By 2012, it was clear that the increasing amount of data across paper, Excel and Access would no longer scale. After careful evaluation, Agosi decided on the [FP]-LIMS analysis management system from Fink & Partner.
Stefan Zorn first became aware of the LIMS at an industry event – and initially could hardly believe what was promised there.
“Right from the start, I was fascinated by how open Fink & Partner’s LIMS is, and how many options it offers for making adjustments yourself. I had not expected that. Many LIMS programs are so closed that you can’t do much yourself. The numerous device connections were also important for us, because we use many different measurement methods and measuring devices.”
Automated Laboratory Processes & Certified SAP Integration
Almost 10 years on, Agosi’s laboratory processes are nearly fully automated. All data converges centrally in one database – managed securely and server-based via [FP]-LIMS. The reduction in workload is clearly noticeable.
All Devices Connected
Measurement data is captured electronically via device interfaces – no more manual entry.
Production & Lab Linked
Production data and lab data are merged via input masks – directly benefitting product quality.
Certified SAP Interface
Specifications and qualities are controlled directly from SAP – via the certified [FP]-LIMS interface.
We have been using SAP as our ERP system for three years. Naturally, you first worry whether data transfer between LIMS and SAP will run smoothly. Thanks to the certified SAP interface of the LIMS, the whole thing was absolutely no problem. Today, qualities can be controlled from SAP – and internal qualities can be created for which specific tests are defined. The quality and specification control of various tests simply runs much better.
LIMS as an Advantage for Audits: User Management & Audit Trail
Quality control in Agosi’s chemical labs · Image: Agosi
Data management has become an important criterion in certification and audit processes. Common audit questions today include:
- How transparent is it when a measured value is changed?
- Was there a reason for the change?
- How secure is the software?
- How is user management regulated, and who has access?
Thanks to the integrated user management and audit trail in [FP]-LIMS, Agosi automatically meets all these requirements. Access and editing rights are assigned per role; every manual change to an analysis value requires a documented reason and is tracked by the system. The complete history of any analysis can be reconstructed at any time.
I am completely satisfied with the solution as it is in use today – not least because of the comprehensive and competent support provided by Fink & Partner.
What Has Changed Since 2012
Before LIMS
- Data spread across paper, Excel and Access
- Error-prone manual data entry
- Statistical evaluations only with great effort
- No transparent audit trail across analyses
With [FP]-LIMS
- All data centralized server-based
- Automatic device-side data capture
- Certified SAP interface in production use
- Full audit trail & role-based user management
Bring Your Lab to the Same Level?
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