"It's high-time for standardisation." Meet Darren Garside, our new Director of Projects & Commercial Strategy.
And he's got a plan.
A word with Darren Garside ahead of ELRIG 2025:
The Challenges: Communication and Quality
Garside pointed to the pervasive issue of unreliable technology, stating "that life science R&D automation still feels too 'R&D’ish' like it's still in early phase release”:
"The solutions and products we see delivered in the industry often feel more like prototypes than truly reliable, commercial products. The quality and operational stability just aren't where they need to be yet. That being said we shouldn’t let this drive for reliability and consistency hinder our innovation and bringing new technology to market. There has to be a balance to get the time to market on new drugs reduced and similarly with other science initiatives." .
— Darren Garside, Director of Projects and Commercial Strategy, FLS
“For repeatable, off-the-shelf automation products, Garside argues, we can’t continue to see this as acceptable.”
The FLS Solution: Design and Reliability
How do you plan on fixing that through FLS?
"This is a continuation of what FLS has done already. I think their reputation speaks for itself: A company with a focus to really bolster the industry and actually help FLS become more known for this really customer-centric delivery and its high-quality robust automation products."
— Darren Garside, Director of Projects and Commercial Strategy, FLS
"Our products, particularly the SmartDeck and the SmartBench, are really thought-through in their design. FLS has really taken time to understand the details and the integration requirements, and how we can make it easier and more reliable for our end customers. We want to speed up the rapid development and deployment of these systems, but in a really high-quality, reliable and efficient manner."
The Future: Rapid Development & Deployment
Garside sees the industry's next major leap being the realisation of maximum value from existing equipment, powered by continuous operation. Ultimately, the goal is to turn automation into a high-efficiency engine for discovery, feeding the data that drives modern science.
"Automation is going to become a production line of data creation. We want to be maximising the utilisation of the equipment... to feed data into these AI systems for them to give us downstream improvement and decision making."
— Darren Garside, Director of Projects and Commercial Strategy, FLS
Darren Garside is a senior life science and automation/robotics leader with over 20 years of experience driving transformative change and customer-first operational excellence. Darren has a proven track record of delivering measurable outcomes in customer service, enterprise-wide customer success, and cross-functional operations leadership. His career spans startups and global enterprises in software, hardware, and life science robotics, automation, and technology, where he has consistently aligned strategic goals with actionable plans to achieve sustainable growth and operational excellence.
Ready to move beyond prototypes and unlock 24/7 reliability? Visit our stand at ELRIG Drug Discovery (Booth C23)
We are not just offering automation; we are standardising the industry.
Our core commitment is to deliver predictable, reliable, and repeatable results, which is why all three of our automation systems - the SmartBench, SmartDeck, and Smartcel-2 - are designed for immediate and full connectivity.
These platforms feature fully integrated automation connectivity, ensuring consistent standardisation. This unique approach allows us to establish a unified and dependable foundation for automated laboratory integrations everywhere.
Interested in finding out how LabworX would work with your integration POs? Request a chat or follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date on our news and be part of the FLS online community.
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