Skip to content
Lab Pulse | Procurement Playbook

Are You a Victim of Labotage? It Starts with Your Lab Supplies

by ZAGENO
 | 6 min read

Introduction: What is “labotage”?

Are you a victim of labotage? 

Labotage is the hidden sabotage that creeps into lab operations when supply management is inefficient. It’s not caused by one big mistake but by small, compounding issues like duplicate purchase orders, weeks-long supplier onboarding, messy spreadsheets, and surprise backorders.

The common thread is almost always lab supplies. The way they are ordered, tracked, and managed can quietly undermine research timelines and budgets.

Every lab has felt it. The endless supplier emails. The shipment that arrives late or incomplete. The experiment that stalls for reasons that feel preventable, because they are.

The good news is that labotage is not permanent. Once you know the signs, you can stop it,  starting with how your lab handles supplies.

Signs of labotage 

Labotage often hides in plain sight. It does not appear as one dramatic failure but as recurring inefficiencies in the way labs source and manage supplies. If any of these sound familiar, your lab may already be showing signs of labotage.

  1. Multiple POs for a single order

    If every vendor requires its own PO, your biotech procurement and finance teams are wasting hours reconciling invoices. Each additional PO adds administrative overhead and increases the risk of errors.

    Why it matters:

    • Finance loses productivity.
    • Approvals slow down urgent orders.
    • Costs creep in unnoticed.

    ✅ How to fix it: A lab procurement platform like ZAGENO consolidates orders from multiple vendors into a single metacart, so you get one PO, one invoice, and one set of payment terms. Using ZAGENO reduces weekly invoice management from 12 hours to under 30 minutes, on average.

    Read more about smarter PO management with a single creditor model.

  2. Scientists ordering outside the system

    If Amazon boxes or untracked vendor shipments are showing up at your lab bench, it’s a sign of maverick or long tail spend. While initially convenient, off-platform orders bypass procurement controls, risk compliance issues, and cost more in the long run.

    Why it matters:

    • No centralized record of spend.
    • Missed opportunities to hit supplier rebate thresholds.
    • Increased audit risk.

    ✅ How to fix it: A biotech procurement solution keeps scientists empowered with access to the supplies they need while ensuring all spend flows through approved vendors and workflows.

    For practical strategies, read our blog on how to reduce lab supply costs.

  3. Weeks to add a new supplier

    If onboarding a vendor takes weeks, your research timeline is already at risk. Supplier onboarding often requires negotiation of terms, compliance reviews, and IT setup, but the right platform can accelerate the process dramatically.

    Why it matters:

    • Delayed access to critical reagents or equipment.
    • Researchers forced to find costly workarounds.
    • Missed project milestones.

    ✅ How to fix it: ZAGENO cuts supplier onboarding time by 2–4 weeks per vendor, adding non-catalog items and new suppliers in hours, not weeks.

    Go behind the scenes of supplier onboarding with A Day in the Life of Jayme Workinger, Supplier Partnership Manager at ZAGENO.

  4. Inventory managed in spreadsheets

    If your lab is still tracking inventory in Excel, you’re setting yourself up for labotage. Spreadsheets can’t handle perishables, batch tracking, or automated stock updates. One typo can lead to costly mistakes.

    Why it matters:

    • High risk of stockouts or expired reagents.
    • Time wasted on manual updates.
    • No visibility into backorder risks.

    ✅ How to fix it: Pair your procurement platform with modern lab management tools to centralize supply chain data and automate updates.

    Learn how ZAGENO enables procurement process automation that saves time and money.

  5. No visibility into shipping or availability

    When shipments are delayed or items arrive incomplete, lab schedules unravel. Without real-time stock visibility and shipping insights, labs are left reacting to problems instead of preventing them.

    Why it matters:

    • Unexpected backorders stall experiments.
    • Teams can’t plan around delivery timelines.
    • Research milestones slip.

    ✅ How to fix it: ZAGENO provides real-time stock visibility and delivery estimates across suppliers, giving labs the power to plan experiments with confidence.

 

The hidden costs of labotage

Labotage isn’t just inconvenient, it’s expensive. Let’s break down the hidden costs:

  • Time: Lab managers lose an average of 6.5 hours per week just searching and ordering supplies.
  • Delays: Every supplier onboarding bottleneck can delay research by weeks.
  • Compliance risks: Maverick spend makes audits more difficult and exposes the lab to risk.
  • Lost opportunities: Budget overruns mean fewer resources for critical experiments.

When multiplied across teams and projects, labotage can quietly cost life sciences organizations millions of dollars each year.

This isn’t just a lab problem. Across industries, CFOs are rethinking procurement as a financial performance tool, not just a back-office function. As Supply Chain Management Review notes in Strategic Procurement: CFO Strategies for Cost Savings, procurement is becoming a driver of profitability and resilience when paired with data-driven decision making.

Breaking the cycle of labotage

The first step to fixing labotage is recognizing it. The second is adopting smarter procurement practices.

Here’s how ZAGENO helps labs eliminate labotage:

  • Metasearch across 40M+ SKUs from 5,000+ suppliers.
  • Smart routing to preferred vendors to strengthen supplier relationships and hit rebate thresholds.
  • One metacart, one invoice, one set of terms across all suppliers.
  • Automated approvals and compliance workflows.
  • Real-time availability and delivery insights to prevent backorder disruptions.
  • 2–4 weeks saved per supplier onboarding.

See more in our case studies showing how leading life sciences teams cut costs and saved time with ZAGENO.

From labotage to lab advantage

Every sign you recognized above is an opportunity to save time, cut costs, and accelerate research.

By tackling labotage head-on, labs can transform procurement from a hidden source of frustration into a strategic advantage. The result: faster experiments, lower costs, and smoother collaboration between procurement, finance, and R&D.

Don’t let your lab be a victim of labotage. See how ZAGENO works.

All your lab needs in one place

Access 40,000,000 products in one shop!

Trusted by thousands of scientists, lab managers, procurement and finance teams, ZAGENO's marketplace will help you search and order quickly in one go. Reach out for a demo today!

Read On