The Interim Manager is a role that is increasingly employed in various business sectors, especially in highly competitive markets like testing laboratories, where accelerating the company’s growth and consolidating productive activities are necessary.

Interim management in a laboratory involves hiring a temporary manager or management team to direct and oversee the laboratory’s operations for a specific period. This may be necessary in situations such as staff transitions, periods of organizational change, implementation of new systems or processes, or when specialized expertise that is not available within the organization is required.

Interim Managers are experienced professionals who can temporarily fill leadership roles, bringing their knowledge and skills to help the laboratory overcome challenges and achieve its objectives. They often have extensive experience in specific areas such as research and development, project management, legislation, market, and business development, among others. This experience enables them to quickly understand the laboratory’s challenges and opportunities.

Their approach is usually pragmatic and results-oriented, working closely with the existing team to ensure a smooth and effective transition during their management period.

The temporary nature of the Interim Manager provides flexibility and agility to organizations, which is especially important in a competitive market like that of laboratories, where needs and priorities can change rapidly. This allows organizations to adapt more easily to changes in the market or strategic direction.

Interim Managers can bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to laboratories. Coming from different organizations and having faced a variety of challenges in the past, they can introduce innovative practices, emerging technologies, and creative approaches to problem-solving. In crisis situations, such as quality issues, regulatory compliance problems, or financial difficulties, Interim Managers can provide the leadership and expertise needed to quickly resolve problems and restore stability in the laboratory.

During their time in the laboratory, Interim Managers must transfer knowledge and skills to internal employees. This can include training in new methodologies, implementing best practices, and developing technical and management capabilities. The ultimate goal is for their knowledge and experience to remain as a valuable asset for the company after their departure.

A laboratory providing analytical services for the agri-food and water sectors decided to expand its ISO 17025 accreditation scope in the microbiological field.

In the case of water, it had a very limited accreditation scope that included total Coliforms, Escherichia coli, and heterotrophic plate count at 22°C and 37°C in drinking water. The intention was to expand the scope to include Enterococci, Clostridium perfringens, and Legionella spp. by culture in drinking water, total Coliforms and Escherichia coli in wastewater, and heterotrophic plate count at 22°C and 37°C and Legionella spp. by culture in surface water.

For food, the laboratory had accreditation for Coliforms, Escherichia coli, and microorganism count at 30°C in food and feed, and aimed to expand the scope to include Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and coagulase-positive Staphylococci in food and feed.

Due to limited resources focused on day-to-day operations, limited experience in the microbiological field, and the need to obtain accreditation within a 4-month period, they decided to seek the support of an external consultant with experience in accreditation processes and technical expertise.

A laboratory providing analytical services for the agri-food sectors launched a project aimed at improving process efficiency, reducing production costs, and increasing productivity.

The reasons for launching this project included a significant increase in sample volume, increasingly stringent regulatory requirements regarding quality, and the growing complexity of interactions between the technical department and other departments such as finance, commercial, marketing, etc. In this context of rising demands, where available human and technical resources were limited and investments were quite constrained, the logical solution was to enhance the efficiency of production processes, cut costs, and boost productivity.

Initially, the project was designed and managed internally by the company’s staff. However, after a year, management realized the project was not progressing as expected. The laboratory identified a clear problem of resource constraints, as they had to prioritize daily operations. Another common issue was resistance to change among the staff, coupled with insufficient knowledge and experience in managing such projects among some team members. This led to a lack of sufficient data and, at times, inadequate analysis for an optimal design of the strategic efficiency plan.

This standard specifies the general requirements for technical competence, impartiality, and consistent operation of laboratories. It establishes general requirements such as impartiality and confidentiality, as well as requirements related to the structure, resources, processes, and management system.

A company in the Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) sector has three laboratories in a specific region, located at significant distances from each other. Two of these laboratories specialize in the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites, soil analysis, waste characterization, acceptance criteria testing for waste, wastewater effluent analysis, and landfill monitoring. The third laboratory focuses on analyzing physico-chemical and microbiological parameters in water, providing analytical services to companies in the water hygiene, water treatment, and hospital sectors, with a strong specialization in the detection of Legionella.

All three laboratories are accredited according to ISO 17025 and collectively have a broad accreditation scope in both microbiological and physico-chemical fields for different matrices.

A year and a half ago, for logistical and commercial strategy reasons, the company decided to establish a new microbiology laboratory within one of the contaminated soil laboratories. This decision aimed to reduce the need to transport samples to the water laboratory and simultaneously diversify the analytical services of the soil laboratory towards water microbiology, providing more local support for microbiological analytical services in that region.

After the design and construction phases of the facilities and their equipment, the company proceeded with the implementation of methods, validation, and staff training, with support from the water laboratory, which had the necessary experience for this implementation.

The new laboratory started with four staff members, and the initial accreditation scope requested from the accreditation body included total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Enterococci, aerobic bacterial count at 37ºC and 22ºC, Clostridium perfringens, Pseudomonas spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Legionella spp., and Legionella pneumophila, both by culture and qPCR.

With everything prepared, the company applied for ISO 17025 accreditation for the new laboratory. After the audit in the summer of 2023, the accreditation body expressed concerns about the weak implementation of the quality system and, primarily, the lack of experience of the staff, which compromised the technical competence of the laboratory for the analytical activities included in the requested accreditation scope.