By Victoria Jackson, CEO, Atlantic Lab Equipment Inc.
At Atlantic Lab Equipment, we’re well into our second decade of providing our customers significant savings by buying and selling used lab equipment. What you may not know about ALE is that we have a well-developed surplus asset management program for larger labs and companies with a large inventory of lab equipment. Large companies may frequently purchase new equipment when the exact same model goes unused in a lab down the hall or in another building. This leads to millions of dollars in wasted budget and inefficiently used lab space annually.
1. “Obstacles are opportunities”
This statement guides the philosophy of the Hyde School in Bath, Maine, where our family sent students for years. Obstacles often look impossible at first. For example, you have a Beckman Biomek FX integrated system sprawled across your lab. You aren’t using it anymore and it’s taking up space you need for your new refurbished Tecan Freedom EVO. A problem hides an opportunity. With some coordination that FX system can be removed and save you serious bucks. Redeploy it elsewhere in the company where it’s needed or sell it and boost your budget.
2. A penny saved is a penny earned.
Efficient management of extra equipment can save you a lot of money. Your unused centrifuge may be the exact machine that the researcher upstairs needs. Re-purposing instruments can help avoid expensive capital equipment purchases. This approach offers enormous savings over buying new. And it’s a great alternative to delaying or abandoning projects because of tight lab budgets. One large pharmaceutical client of ours has saved millions of dollars in a few years with ALE’s surplus redeployment program.
3. A picture is worth a thousand words
… and potentially thousands of dollars. A private marketplace with pictures of available equipment is essential. Think of it as an eBay for your company. Atlantic Lab Equipment can help with this.
4. It ain’t easy.
Let someone else do the hard part. “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it,” my dad preaches. Managing lots of lab equipment requires time and space; something most labs lack. You need to:
- catalog information about the instruments
- collect and move the equipment
- store the instruments
- prepare the equipment for redeployment
This requires experienced people to pack, move, test, and service the equipment before re-use. This is what hinders a lot of labs from maximizing their return on idle assets. Atlantic Lab Equipment does this well.
5. Play to your strengths.
A partnership between your company and a nimble, knowledgeable surplus asset manager is powerful. ALE applies our 16+ years of knowledge and experience in the used equipment market. We manage and recondition our client’s equipment to help maximize their financial potential. Our team focuses on the flow of equipment, so your scientists and lab management can focus on the research.
6. The surplus asset management program can pay for itself.
Redeployment, sale, and scrap of unused equipment can generate positive cash flow back to our clients. If the internal marketplace listing expires before a researcher requests the instrument, ALE will buy the instrument or sell it on consignment. The redeployed assets create a stream of savings, while decommissioned assets create a revenue stream.
7. ALE can customize the surplus asset management program for your company.
ALE can help set up a surplus asset management program at your company that fits your needs. We can provide separate modules or the entire program, doing as much or as little as you would like.
- ALE Marketplace tracking and management
- Pick-up / Delivery
- Moving
- Storage
- Redeployment services (testing, repair, installation)
We’d like to share the knowledge we’ve gained in our 16+ years of buying and selling used lab equipment to help you maximize your lab assets.
8. The secret to surplus asset management success is servicing the instruments.
Researchers feel more comfortable reusing equipment if they can be certain it works. Nobody wants a hunk of junk – even for “free”. This requires technicians to test and then fix instruments when needed. ALE has earned a reputation for providing high-quality refurbished instruments to our customers. We remove this risk by incorporating testing and service as part of the asset management workflow, and it makes all the difference.
9. Time is money.
My dad said this ALL the time! Do what you do best and let ALE manage your surplus assets.