Method of operating an analytical laboratory

A method of operating an analytical laboratory, the method comprising:

• receiving and identifying a plurality of biological samples;
• upon identifying the biological samples, recording data indicative of a time at which the biological samples were first identified;
• retrieving by a control unit of the analytical laboratory an order list from a data storage unit comprising one or more test orders corresponding to each biological sample;
• retrieving from the data storage unit by the control unit data indicative of a degradation limit corresponding to each test order of the order list;
• determining by the control unit sample workflows corresponding to each biological sample and the order list;
• and
• instructing by the control unit one or more laboratory instruments of the analytical laboratory to carry out the test orders according to the sample workflows wherein the determination of the sample workflows comprises
• i) determining a target list of one or more laboratory instruments of the analytical laboratory for carrying out the one or more test orders,
• ii) determining a sequence and/or timing of carrying out the one or more test orders by the target list of laboratory instruments,
• iii) calculating an estimated completion time for each test order based on the sequence and/or timing of carrying out the one or more test orders,
• iv) determining a lead time corresponding to each biological sample for each test order, the lead time being the time period between the time at which the biological sample was first identified and the estimated completion time of the respective test order,
• v) prioritizing one or more test orders from the order list if the lead time exceeds the degradation limit corresponding to the respective test order,
• repeating steps ii) to v)
• until the lead time doesn't exceed the degradation limit for any of the test orders or until steps ii) to v) have been repeated for a number N of iterations.