Sending a Shipment

If a shipment's status is "batched", this means that the shipment has been prepared, but not sent. Sending a shipment is done on the View Shipment tab. You're not technically sending it; what you're doing is changing the status of the shipment to shipped in LDMS and creating the shipping file. The shipping file is a computer file that the you will send to the receiving laboratory to import into LDMS.

  1. (When shipping loose specimens) Select the primary sort order from the bottom of the view shipment tab.

  2. (When shipping loose specimens) Select the secondary sort order

  3. Generate the shipping manifest by clicking the button.

    Note:

    If your shipment contains specimens for MACS or WIHS groups, you will be prompted to chose between generating the standard manifest report or the SeraCare manifest. Export the SeraCare manifest as a CSV file; this is considered a SeraCare shipping file.

  4. Select the type of shipping file to generate from the Shipment Type drop-down in the upper-right corner.

    Tip:

    It is a very good idea to communicate with the receive laboratory to determine what software they are using and their preferred shipping file format. When both laboratories are using LDMS, the standard LDMS Shipping Batch format should be used.

  5. Click the Ship button.

  6. When prompted, select the temperature at which the shipment will be sent.

  7. Click the appropriate drive where the shipping file should be created. This may be a removable media drive, such as a USB-drive or it may be the C:\ drive.

    Note:

    At this time, you cannot specify a specific directory to which to write the shipping file; you can only specify the drive.

  8. A separate program called LDMS Data Exchange (sometimes called LDX) will appear. This program will show you the progress of pulling information from your LDMS database and creating the shipping file. To start, click the Exchange button.

    1. (For LABWARE2 and Cross-LIMS only) Before selecting the Exchange button, click the Configure button in the Destination section. Specify the output location for the file.

  9. Select the temperature at which you will be shipping the specimens. If you want to specify more information, use the comments field on the Storage Destination tab.

LDMS will create a folder named with the batch number in the drive that was specified (e.g. C:\43\43, where 43 without an extension is the shipping file). The corresponding batch will now have the status of Sent on the View Shipment tab.

Table 1. Available shipping file formats.

In the file name examples, the batch number is "43", the sending laboratory is "500", and the receiving laboratory is "512."
Format File extension Encrypted? Example filename
LDMS Shipping Batch None Yes 43
Excel or Comma Separated Text .xls or csv No ship43.xls
Cross-LIMS Manifest .txt No 500-512-0000000043.txt
Labware Shipments .csv No 500-512-0000000043.csv

How exactly the shipping file is given to the receiving laboratory will vary, depending on the group and laboratory. Only LDMS Shipping Batches are encrypted; all other formats are, by nature, plain text files that could be read outside of LDMS.