HappiLabs Holiday Schedule and Supply Chain Chaos

Hello scientists (and operations and finance folks that depend on HappiLabs),

First, HappiLabs will be off on November 25 and 26.

For the week between December 24 and 31, we will be off on Dec 24 and Dec 31, along with a reduced staff for the whole week. Expect slower than normal responses from your Virtual Lab Managers.

Second, there are two storms colliding over the next two months and we want to make sure you are ready. An umbrella or sand bags will not help you, but some simple inventory planning will.

Bad planning will result in an absence of lab supplies and a pause in your science. Read on to be aware and plan accordingly.

Storm 1: Chaos in the global supply chain

• There are global shortages of raw materials for plastic (Harvard Business Review) and filter materials, along with other lab materials. No lab is immune.
• Freight ships are stuck ports around the world, including a large backup in Los Angeles, and more photos of the L.A. situation.
• Shortage of truck drivers

How it affects your lab: It is taking longer than ever to receive lab supplies and equipment.

Storm 2: Holiday season

Thanksgiving (Nov 25) and Black Friday on (Nov 26)

Christmas (Friday Dec 24) and New Years Eve (Friday Dec 31)

Same as always. People are buying more, UPS/Fedex are busier and deliveries in general slow down.

How it affects your lab: It will take longer than ever to receive lab supplies and equipment.

How can you prepare?

1. Set expectations. Assume the fastest you can receive any item is 3 days from today. We have seen many instances where a supplier has an item in stock, but the warehouse is backed up and cannot ship it for 1-3 days (or longer). If you planned poorly, don’t expect the best lab manager in the world to work magic.
2. Order supplies weeks before you need them. Work with your Virtual Lab Manager to review inventory, identify critical items, and analyze your purchasing/inventory data to determine how many you should order.
   1. In some cases of science this is not possible. You get data from an experiment and immediately want to act on the result. We understand, but don’t expect to receive an item immediately.
3. Set a meeting with your Virtual Lab Manager to review open orders that are backordered, average lead times, and strategies to maintain inventory.
4. Let HappiLabs know of your holiday schedule. We’ll work to avoid deliveries while you’re away.

Happy Holidays to all. We are grateful we get to work with such amazing scientists and thank you for helping us plan for your lab needs this holiday season! Cheers from the HappiLabs team

We’re hiring a Virtual Lab Manager

Virtual Lab Manager at a growing life science company

If you have experience with lab management, purchasing, or customer service in the sciences, apply!

ABOUT HAPPILABS

HappiLabs is a small business with a startup mentality in Chicago that provides a service to scientists called the Virtual Lab Manager. We support scientists in various ways, virtually, which includes acting as an outsourced purchasing department (some might say a Personal Shopper) for biotech companies and scientific research labs.

We have a mission: to improve the happiness of scientists and the quality of their research.

By helping scientists do their job, we are helping all the people on the planet who benefit from inventions, creations, and knowledge that scientists create.

You will co-manage a minimum of two labs. We are “virtual” so your job consists of sitting in our offices and communicating with scientists, in other parts of the world, about what they need to run their experiments.

You will be employee #18 and trained to be one of the best lab managers in the world.

EXPERIENCE

A strong candidate will have one of these backgrounds:

• Lab manager or postdoc or superb grad student who has managed people, experiments, and budgets
• Purchasing agent or buyer for scientists
• Operations or Sales rep in the life science industry (but this is NOT a sales job)

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Keep scientists and engineers (our customers) happy and focused by managing their interactions with the accounting dept and suppliers
• Communicate with customers to understand their needs and experiments
• Communicate with suppliers (sales reps, technical help & customer service) to obtain pricing and technical info, place orders, retrieve order updates, and solve logistics and supply chain problems
• Use our technology systems to organize accounting, asset, and Environmental Health & Safety data
• Report progress and solve problems at weekly team meetings

TIMEFRAME

Looking to start now, preferably in Chicago or San Francisco.

COMPENSATION

• Full-time, salary
• $50-70k, depending on experience
• Medical and Dental health benefits
• A t-shirt, free coffee and snacks at the office

BONUS SKILLS AND TRAITS

We want a long-term commitment, someone who will help a small company grow into a large one.

• Tech savvy (very good with a computer, its keyboard and multiple monitors)
• Proactive mentality – help without being asked to help, and an ability to predict problems
• Knowledge of hardware or mechanical engineering, and/or chemistry, and/or molecular biology
• A passion for science and desire to make a difference in the world.
• Confident presence on the phone. We frequently call suppliers

===== APPLY NOW! ======

CLICK this link and fill out the form on the right: HappiLabs job application 1

It will not hurt to connect with Tom on LinkedIn.

UPDATE: Shortages in the Scientific Supply Chain

Scientists, we want to give you a heads up. 

The scientific supply chain for lab supplies and equipment is continuing to see disruption. Your science may be affected. Please read this update and plan accordingly.

HappiLabs is seeing significant delays (aka backorders) for common items as they are no longer in-stock. This is verified with public statements from leading global suppliers, shown at the bottom of this post. Supplies that would normally ship in 1-3 days, now have lead times of two-plus weeks — this is our new normal.

Gone are the days of, “Oh s***, I’m out of (reagent X)!!!!, ship me more overnight or my science pauses for two weeks.” Say hello to “Oh s***, I’m out of (reagent X), my science will pause for two weeks.”

HappiLabs is warning you….Plan your lab inventory and purchases at least two weeks in advance. DO NOT wait until a lab supply is down to the last serving, and do not think “The world will never run out of these.” 

The list of affected items changes weekly, but common items include:

• Nitrile gloves
• All PPE, obviously
• Filter pipette tips
• Robotic pipette tips
• Freezers (-20 and -80) and fridges (mini-fridges seem OK for now)
• PCR tubes and reagents required for PCR
• Many Corning plastics. Ouch!

And think about the trickle effect as manufacturers need to print more PCR tubes for the increased demand from COVID-19 testing labs, the “printing press” for 250mL conical tubes is repurposed for PCR tubes. Now 250mL tubes are short.

Who knows what item will be affected next? Maybe those cute little paddles used to press sealing film onto a 96-well PCR plate. 

NEVER FEAR!

HappiLabs always sees the positive….This will end, and not everything is on backorder.

We are here to work with your scientists and plan ahead. We have four recommendations:

1. Know which supplies are critical. Review protocols and experiments to confirm items you should not run out of.
2. Buy 3-6 months worth of items that are essential to your science. We will review your purchasing data to inform you “What quantity is 3-6 months worth?”
3. Invite your Virtual Lab Manager to your recurring lab meeting, at least monthly, to make sure we’re all on the same page about what is “critical” as your needs change.
4. Diversify your suppliers outside of the normal players like Fisher, VWR, Sigma.

If you have 20+ scientists in your company, it will also be wise to set up “Standing Orders” where a smaller quantity of items is reserved and scheduled to deliver on a fixed timeline. This helps manufacturers plan demand ahead of time.

WHAT IS HAPPILABS DOING TO HELP YOUR LAB?

Keeping our ears to the ground. Every day we interact with customer service, sales reps, tech support, and shipping companies (UPS/Fedex/Amazon). 

We are in constant contact with regional distributors who are not on the front page of Google such as Neta Scientific, Stellar Scientific, and Genesee. Quartzy has been helpful as well.

Our lab managers meet daily to discuss developments and supplier updates, and share relevant info with your scientists.

We check ETAs BEFORE placing the order. Don’t get fooled…”But the website said it was in stock.”

We can’t predict the future but we do see this continuing for six-plus months. 

HappiLabs is working hard for our partners and scientists to manage your lab through a difficult time. We’ll continue to keep you updated on need-to-know shortages within the scientific supply chain.

Again, invite your Virtual Lab Manager to your next lab meeting and we’ll get through this together. 

Fist bump,

HappiTom and the HappiLabs team of Virtual Lab Managers

=====SUPPLIER PUBLIC STATEMENTS===========

Message from Corning via email:

Some of you have experienced delays getting Corning, Falcon and Axygen brand products over the past couple months and this is due to our relocating to a new warehouse and unexpected issues. This Corning flask backorder is unrelated and the Falcon flask alternatives will be shipped from our previous, unaffected, warehouse. We are getting caught up on these shipments from the new warehouse. If you can switch to the Falcon flasks for now and plan ahead just a little, that will help ensure your flask supply.

Message from Rainin via email:

Our biggest challenge to date has been the rapid and large increase in demand for our tip products. The need for COVID-19 testing has created a global shortage of pipette tips, and Rainin as well as other tip manufacturers have been unable to keep up with the enormous increase in demand. Through quick actions to expand capacity we have been able to increase our output by about 60% and we have planned further capacity increases but are awaiting the delivery of additional tools that are currently in very high demand.

Even though Rainin has significantly increased production, the need for tips continues to grow. Therefore, if our delivery times are longer than you have come to expect from us, we appreciate your patience and understanding!

From Eppendorf:

From USA Scientific

Time to Vote. HappiLabs will be short-staffed on Election Day

From the CEO, Tom Ruginis….

Following up on our Black Lives Matter commitments, HappiLabs is giving employees the time they need to vote with an extra paid holiday. We will be splitting the holiday across 2 days in order to maintain our commitment & responsiveness to our customers. On November 3 and Nov 4, we will be short-staffed. We want to warn our labs:

There will be a limited number of Virtual Lab Managers available. On the day your lab manager is off, only urgent matters will be addressed. All regular communication channels will be monitored. If you do need HappiLabs, another Virtual Lab Manager will be here, but please plan accordingly.

We urge your labs to do the same. Make sure your scientists have time to exercise their right to vote, and select leaders who believe in science and fact-based decision making.

Go vote!

====ABOUT HAPPILABS====

HappiLabs is a small business focused on changing how science labs are operated. We work with a mission: to improve the happiness of scientists and the quality of their research.

The mission guides our day-to-day decisions when managing a lab, and it keeps us focused on improving long-term innovation and funding in the sciences. We are always looking for our next Virtual Lab Manager or our next lab to manage. Please reach out if you have any questions or want to work with HappiLabs.

Enjoy your day and here are cool microscopy photos from Efra Rivera-Serrano, PhD:

Reporting on Black Lives Matter action items

In July, HappiLabs made a commitment to Black Lives Matter. We are focused on improving diversity in the scientific supply chain. A statement few other scientific suppliers have stated outright.

An immediate, impactful action we set is to include Neta Scientific when shopping for lab supplies. On the flip side, we are driving business away from $170+ billion ThermoFisher, the blue whale of the scientific supply world, to improve the imbalance between ultra wealthy and everyone else. At HappiLabs, we walk the talk and will report metrics on our progress.

Before June, the HappiLabs network spent $0 with Neta Scientific. In the past three months, we made 21 purchases for a total of $16,639.17. August saw an increase of over 200% from July.

• 

• 

The bottom graph shows the difference in number of orders from the HappiLabs network between Neta Scientific and the ThermoFisher whale (Fisher and Thermo are tracked separately, although they are under the same corporate umbrella).

We ask that all scientists, in or out of the HappiLabs network, be more mindful about who they buy from and how you can contribute to change in the scientific supply chain.

• 

It’s a long, tough road and we are up for the challenge of change. HappiLabs and our team of Virtual Lab Managers support equality and equity. Our position puts us into battles with scientists, sales reps, and sometimes even lawyers about the final decision on where a scientist buys supplies. We stand strong on our position to increase inclusivity in the scientific supply chain.

We’ll report back in a few months. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter @happilabs_org or contact us here with questions/comments.