Sample and instrument intake, drafted from the paperwork in the box.

Today a receiving tech opens the box, reads what came with it and builds the record: the customer, each item with its sample ID or serial number, the tests or calibrations requested, the due date, and how things looked on arrival.

In the proof of concept, AI reads copies of that paperwork and drafts the intake record, one line per item. It keys and labels nothing. Anything missing, unreadable or contradictory goes on a list for the tech, with the document and line it came from.

One item, one identity. ISO/IEC 17025 asks for a system that keeps items from being confused, on the shelf or in the records, for as long as the lab holds them, and that copes when an item is split into parts, handled as a group or transferred. So the customer's ID, your lab ID and the maker's serial number must all point at the same thing, whether it is a bar cut into tensile blanks or a meter listed by asset tag on the PO and by serial on the packing slip. The draft keeps every link and, when two documents disagree, says so instead of choosing.

When the box doesn't match. The standard has deviations from specified conditions recorded on receipt. If an item looks unsuitable or doesn't fit its description, the lab asks the customer before going on and records the answer, and if the customer says go ahead, the report must name the results that may be affected. So the draft never decides. A broken custody seal, five items on the form against four on the packing list, or a material that differs from the bag label goes on the flag list.

Instructions that outlast login. A submission form may ask whether samples go back or get discarded, whether any are hazardous, whether they need special storage, and whether the job is for litigation. On evidence work the custody record starts with the customer's relinquished-by line, and every hand-off after it carries a printed name, signature, date and time. The standard says handling instructions sent with an item are followed and that set storage conditions are kept, monitored and recorded, so a dropped keep-refrigerated note is worse than a typo.

Instruments bring their own puzzles. A PO may say only calibrate, while the customer expects an accredited calibration under your scope rather than a standard one, or wants the readings as well as the certificate. Probes and leads arrive or don't, and the asset tag, model and serial number each sit on a different document. The draft records the service level the paperwork asks for and lists any conflict as a question.

The paperwork keeps moving. A customer emails two days later to add a test or move a due date. Under 17025, a contract amended after work starts is reviewed again, everyone affected is told, and records of pertinent customer discussions are kept. The draft attaches each later email to its job and marks what changed. Keying the record is a data transfer the standard says is checked systematically, and that check stays with your tech.

If your reviewer finds the drafts met the success criteria, new arrivals get the same drafting for about 30 days.

Each draft waits for your receiving tech to approve it before anything is entered in your LIMS or calibration system, and the tech's own look at the box stays the record.

Scoring continues the same way, and nothing else is added until that run is judged.