THE LOGISTICIAN SAY WHAT YOU NEED AND I'LL GET HOLD OF IT Laboratory technologist Heidi Irming is a buyer at DTU Biosustain, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (CFB) in Hørsholm. She has recently been extremely busy in connection with the moving of DTU Biosustain to a completely new biotechnology tower block at DTU Lyngby Campus. Heidi Irming is one of the key persons who has to control the logistics in connection with the move as well as with the busy everyday research environment. There are more than 220 employees in the building she works in. Of these 200 work in the laboratories and it is these 200 research workers, laboratory technologists and assistants she has to service. Now we are going to move, so a lot of new equipment will have to be bought. At the moment I am going around asking the employees what they need, and which brands they prefer. As I am a laboratory technologist I know what is good and what is bad. But I would rather not decide on my own. They have, of course, to have some influence on what we buy, so we discuss it. In this way I have a large number of contacts. Colleagues can also ask for help finding a certain plate. Then I help them with that, if they are looking for a product, and they do not quite know what they want, says Heidi Irming. More than half of the employees in her department are foreigners who do not know the Danish suppliers. She helps them to find out what they need, and then they are informed that Danish suppliers are given preference. 12 THE LOGISTICIA N A variety of tasks The best thing about her work is that there are a variety of tasks. It is good fun. And perhaps I am something of a trouble-shooter. I get the infrastructure to function. And then I like the fact that there are many different cultures and people. I like the research environment with research workers and young people. Given that I am a buyer at a place like this I still use my laboratory technologist's education, and it is nice that I have not left it completely, she says. She has worked in research and quality control QC for 16 years. Furthermore she has worked for five years as a sales coordinator in a company which sold chemicals, reagents and equipment. That meant that she had as her area of activity: purchasing, sales and logistics. As a logistician she ran the stockroom and packing and forwarding department. And now she has been three years in a newly established position at DTU Biosustain. Considerable time spent Previously it was the laboratory technologist who had to order everything. But management could see that far too much time was spent doing this. So, it was agreed to bring together and coordinate purchasing. Now I work with purchasing of chemicals, laboratory articles and equipment. And I am also responsible for packets coming into the building, being opened and the goods put into place. Either the users have to have their goods straight away, or they are placed in the stockroom. I am also responsible for the stockroom. It is a joint stockroom with all kinds of plastic and glass articles. The users just go down into the basement and fetch ordinary goods. I am responsible for the shelves being filled, says Heidi Irming. She thinks it is a good idea that purchasing at the institute has been brought together and coordinated because it saves money. She has close contact with the suppliers; they are on good terms and she gets better prices because the purchases can be collected together in bulk. DTU makes a tender round every now and again. You have, of course, to adhere to the tender, but sometimes you are able, to obtain better prices even though you adhere to the tender. Explosives stopped Being placed in a central position she has in DTU Biosustain a good idea of what is going on in the building. She can keep an eye on what chemicals and equipment are arriving at the building. She had an experience where somebody wanted to purchase explosives. If they had been responsible for the purchase they could have been delivered to the building. But because the order lands on my desk, I can ask the user whether he is sure about the purchase in question. In such a case there are I might also be a bit of a problem cracker and make the infrastructure work things which you have to be in control of prior to the purchase. Often, they do not use the material anyway. Sometimes you can stop some things or at least ensure that some rules have to be made first, says Heidi Irming. She has a budget which has to be kept to, but she is not responsible for the budget. So, she has not got the green light to buy whatever she wants. But she knows what the budget is, and she receives a statement monthly, so she can see whether she is within the scope of the budget. The research workers have their own budgets which they control themselves, so Heidi Irming is solely responsible for joint purchasing. If she buys expensive equipment, her boss and somebody from the financial department have to approve the purchase. Equipment database At the present time she is in the process of establishing an equipment database where all information about the equipment has been installed. If something breaks down, Heidi Irming is informed, and then she looks at the equipment database and finds out what kind of service is needed. So, she makes sure that things are repaired. We make use of some purchasing and financial software. I have got a software where the users can place their orders. For them it is an ordering software and they can use that instead of sending me an email. I can see that we perhaps have to have five goods from the same supplier, so I make an order by copying the orders over into DTU's e-commerce software. It is a purchasing software which we use for purchasing. I am a super user in the software and help others if they have problems with it. Apart from that I have a student to assist me with different things in the stockroom and with packages. Apart from this Heidi Irming is a shop steward and in relation to this she is interested in having a good working environment physically as well as mentally. Previously she was a working environment representative and she devotes a lot of attention to ensuring safety and the working environment are of the highest order, so she also uses her job for this when she goes around the workplace. n 13 MEET 9 SPECIALISTS WHO ARE CREATING THE FUTURE THE DEV ELOPER THE IT SUPER USER DITOR THE QUALITY AU THE TECHNOLOGIST THE COORDINATOR THE LOGISTICIA N THE ANALYST THE TRAINER LABORATORY TECHNOLOGIST EDUCATION THE WORLD CITIZEN CONTENTS A PROFESSION UNDERGOING CHANGE In Dansk Laborant-Forening/HK (DL-F) we know that our profession contains a vast number of exciting job opportunities. 03 Preface: A profession undergoing change 04 The Analyst: Guarantor for consumer safety 06 The Quality Auditor: Ensures that quality THE ANALYST ANALYTIKEREN 1 GUARANTOR GARANT FOR FOR CONSUMER SIKKERHED FORBRUGERNES SAFETY THE ANALYST Eva Jørgensen has been a laboratory technologist since 1989 and has worked at the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's laboratory in Ringsted since 2006. At that time, she was, together w THE QUALITY AUDITOR ANALYTIKEREN 1 ENSURES THAT GARANT FOR QUALITY IS OF THE FORBRUGERNES SIKKERHED HIGHEST ORDER DITOR THE QUALITY AU When laboratory technologist, Susanne Jeppe sen, is doing her job at Novo Nordisk A/S in Bagsværd it is done for the most part at a desk and in front of a compute IT SUPER USER BRIDGE-BUILDER BETWEEN RESEARCH AND IT DEVELOPMENT Since Mads Molich completed his education as a laboratory technologist in 2006, he has for the most part not had two working days that are the same. Today he works at Novozymes A/S in Bagsværd as a scientific laboratory technologist o THE COORDINATOR FLAIR FOR ORGANISING AND GATHERING KNOWLEDGE THE COORDINATOR As a working environment and emergency and security coordinator Henriette Lerche no longer works in the laboratory. Her workplace is the long corridors and offices at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University on THE LOGISTICIAN SAY WHAT YOU NEED AND I'LL GET HOLD OF IT Laboratory technologist Heidi Irming is a buyer at DTU Biosustain, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (CFB) in Hørsholm. She has recently been extremely busy in connection with the moving of DTU Biosustain to a completely THE TRAINER ANALYTIKEREN 1 THE LABORATORY TECHNOLOGIST TEACHES THE DOCTORS OF THE FUTURE Thousands of young medical students have over the years become acquainted with Helle Dyhrfjeld Jensen's professional guidance in the laboratories of the Panum Institute in Copenhagen. Helle is employed as a pr THE DEVELOPER I LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY Lene Odgaard Kamstrup is a laboratory technologist with the Danish-American company CMC Biologics A/S, CMC, in Søborg. The biotechnology company is a customer-based company. This means that they have many different customers which they undertake develop THE TECHNOLOGIST FROM ALARM CLOCKS TO ROBOTS Inge Lise Stripp Petersen has always enjoyed technology, IT and programming. Since she was little she has taken everything apart from alarm clocks to sewing machines. Today she is a laboratory technologist at Novo Nordisk A/S in the API Bio Analysis depa THE WORLD CITIZEN I participate in weekly Skype meetings with the Indian and Polish development departments ALL-ROUND JOB WITH AN INTER NATIONAL PROFILE Weekly Skype meetings with Indian engineers, visits to factories in Germany, France and India, courses in England and meetings with Japanese cust WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THE GENERAL EDUCATION SYSTEM WORTH KNOWING ABOUT FURTHER EDUCATION & TRAINING In Dansk Laborant-Forening/HK(DL-F) we are working on creating a transparent way through the education system. It can be in relation to mem bers, employers as well as the political system. In Dansk L ABOUT DANSK LABORANTFORENING/HK (DL-F) Dansk Laborant-Forening/HK (DL-F) is a cross-union association in HK. We organize approx. 10,000 members whose primary educational background is laboratory assistant, laboratory technologist, environmental engineer or environmental technologist; they are employ