Paragon Geochemical is a mid-size provider of commercial assay services to the mining and exploration industries. Paragon is committed to providing assay lab services that meet all industry and regulatory standards of best practice while consistently beating industry expectations for turnaround time and customer service.
To ensure that Paragon is meeting its objectives for data quality, customer service and strategic vision, the following metrics have been identified as providing quantifiable measures of performance.
- All client samples are logged into the laboratory information management system (LIMS) within 24 hours of receipt, and clients are notified of receipt immediately.
- All products and data are assessed against quality metrics that are clearly defined in the SOP for each process or analytical method before release to the client. Paragon strives to achieve an internal reanalysis rate of <5%, and client requested reanalysis rate of <0.2%. Targeted data quality failure rate, discovered by any client, will be <0.01%, or less than one data failure for every 10,000 determinations.
- To report final data within 7-10 days for all samples received in good order and with complete paperwork
- To achieve a client satisfaction rating of >85% as measured by an annual client survey, and to document and act on 100% of issues that are identified.
- Maintain a 100% client retention rate unless management decides to sever the working relationship. Every client lost unintentionally will be contacted in the pursuit of remediation and re-establishment of the working relationship.
- Staff turnover can have negative effects of both quality and efficiency. Paragon therefore strives for an annual staff turnover rate of <5% for management positions and 20% for techs.
- Total Revenue / market share targets will be evaluated quarterly as a measure of meeting client expectations. Third party data analysis for industry exploration budgets will be compared to lab revenues to determine current market share. Actual market share will be compared to forecasted share. Forecasts may be adjusted accordingly.
- Data quality will be measured using GeoStats semi-annual round robin results. Lab data failures will be investigated for continuous improvement. Failures are defined as results that fall outside the defined SOP precision limits.
- Maintain ISO/IEC 17025 certification.
- Productivity benchmarks will be tracked for each 24 hour day and reported within 12 hours of each day’s activity, except on weekends and holidays. Overall efficiency for the lab will be maintained at a minimum of 75%. Department managers will discuss the tracked efficiency rates each month.
- Lost time injuries, first aid applications, safety incidents and near misses will all be tracked and discussed monthly with department managers. Lost time injuries are not acceptable, and require an investigation into root cause and remedy for future prevention. All other events require the same investigation and remedial action creation.
- Maintaining regulatory compliance requires a quarterly update of all business activities under agency oversight. Required recordkeeping will be reviewed and any non- compliant citations or warnings will be discussed. Infractions will require remedial actions for future avoidance.
- Risk Register analysis will be undertaken annually and recorded. Any risks with a high penalty cost will be investigated in pursuit of risk avoidance.
