METHOD OF OPERATING AN ANALYTICAL LABORATORY INCLUDING REDETERMINING THE OPTIMAL TRANSPORTATION ROUTE

A method of operating an analytical laboratory (1), comprising the steps of:a) receiving and identifying a plurality of biological samples held in sample containers (30) and sorting the plurality of sample containers (30) into a sample rack (40) by a pre-analytical laboratory instrument (10PRE) of the analytical laboratory (1);b) retrieving an order list A from a storage unit (22), the order list A comprising a plurality of test orders corresponding to the sample containers (30) within the respective sample rack (40); each test order defining at least one processing step to be carried out on the biological sample held in the respective sample container (30);c) determining an optimal transportation route by the control unit (20) for the sample rack (40) based on the order list A, a set of constraints and an objective function, the transportation route being indicative of a list and/or sequence of laboratory instrument(s) (10) required to complete one or more of the test orders of the order list A;d) re-determining the optimal transportation route by the control unit (20) upon a change of one or more of the set of constraints and/or a change of the objective function;e) transporting the sample rack (40) to one or more of the plurality of laboratory instruments (10) according to the optimal transportation route by the sample transportation system (50);f) processing the biological samples according to the corresponding test orders by the target laboratory instrument(s) (10).