What's That Industrial Engineer Doing in My Vivarium?

By Ken Lepidi and D. Brian Lucid May/June 2007 The use of industrial engineering practices and 3D simulation in the development of new or renovated vivariums, provides a means of maximizing holding room densities while identifying the most efficient use of manpower in animal husbandry and colony management. When designing a new facility or making changes to an existing small animal vivarium, conventional wisdom would lead planners and operations personnel to pack a holding room with as many cages as possible to maximize room density, and thus provide the greatest return on capital investment and lowest costs per diem. While all this seems logical and quite necessary, in many cases, the return on investment is more than offset by ongoing manpower penalties associated with animal husbandry and colony management staff working in holding rooms that are not optimized for the labor intensive tasks at hand. In addition, there is always the question of exactly how many technicians are ...  more