Fire Safety Strategies For Sainsburys Warehouse Environmental Sciences Essay

Fire Safety Strategies For Sainsburys Warehouse Environmental Sciences Essay The purpose of this Outline Fire Strategy Report is to facilitate preliminary discussions with the Approving Authorities and to outline the approach that will be taken to show compliance with Part B (Fire Safety) of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations (2000 2006). This report will provide a brief summary on all the aspects of fire safety which correlate with the corresponding Building Regulations. However, it will focus primarily on issues pertaining to the Fire Detection (AFD) and Alarm system and linking factors, such as evacuation times and fire growth. Since the 1960s there has been a rapid increase in the construction of large single storey storage warehouse facilities in the United Kingdom (UK). One of the most notable of these was the 40,000m2 unsprinklered military storage facility constructed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) at Donnington. In 1983 this storage facility was completely destroyed by fire despite the presence of an on-site fire service. The fire at Donnington and other unsprinklered warehouses circa 1980 raised concerns in the UK and the United States (US). They present an extremely high risk to firefighters due to size and fire loading, devastating was the incident in November 2007, which was a fire in a vegetable packing plant located in Warwickshire that resulted in the tragic loss of four firefighters. Over the last 2 decades there has been an increase in the use of warehouses as a crucial part within the supply chain, this has been accelerated to deliver a just-in-time delivery system that has demanded more sophisticated processes. Where property protection sprinkler systems are installed with additional enhanced features, significant improvements upon the 80% reliability can be achieved.. 3 Description of the issue to be solved When minimum fire protection measures are provided (i.e. manual fire alarm, 2m floor to ceiling height, etc), ADB suggests maximum travel distances in warehouse accommodation of 25m in a single direction of travel and 45m where two means of escape are provided. The proposed building contains a number of inherent fire safety features such as high ceilings, automatic fire detection, sprinklers and an open plan environment. Such features assist in prolonging the onset of hazardous conditions and increase the chance of a person becoming aware of a fire in the initial stages of its development independent of the alarm being raised by others. Therefore, the basic recommendations set out in ADB are considered to be unduly restrictive fir the proposed building. The 2.5 min notional escape time used in current guides came from the Empire Palace Theatre Fire in 1911, as it was the time taken for the audience to escape, which was measured due to the Orchestra playing God saves the King during t he evacuation. Many other requirements within the prescriptive code developed in the same way with no specific foundation to support them. Figure 4 Methods and schemes To comply with the functional requirements the Secretary of State has approved a series of Approved Documents, which aims to provide practical guidance with respect to the functional requirements of schedule 1 and Regulation 7 of the Building regulations 2000 (SI 2000/2531) for England. The approved document for the above function is Approved Document B (Fire Safety), Volume 2 Buildings other than dwelling houses (ADB); however these functional requirements can be achieved in a number of different ways. This report will focus on B1. 4.1 Approved document B and solution of fire engineering ADB states the following: Fire safety engineering may provide an alternative approach to fire safety. It may be the only realistic way to achieve an acceptable standard of fire safety in some large and intricate buildings and in buildings containing diverse uses. Therefore, where the proposed development does not fully comply with the recommendations of ADB it is intended to incorporate the latest guidance available as part of an alternative fire safety engineering approach. This approach will be base don the recommendations of BS7974 with the overarching aim of achieving the optimum design solution and Building Regulation Approvals. A fire alarm system is designed to detect and raise the alarm in a fire situation for the following purposes: As part of the life safety system (L) For the protection of property (P) For a warehouse the type of system is determined by the current addition of BS5839-1; Fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings (Code of practice for system design, installation, commissioning and maintenance). Table A.1 of BS5839 Part 1 identifies the appropriate alarm system for the building. Figure If we consider the building as a warehouse the British Standard states that the premises will require the highest standard of property protection a Category P1 system, where automatic fire detectors are installed in all areas of the building. The system is intended to satisfy the requirements of fire insurers as it considers a life safety system not appropriate for the building type as the occupiers are awake and will detect and raise the alarm. This is against the recommended type of system under BS9999 as it states for a fast growing fire with a risk rating of A3 (reduced from A4 due to sprinklers being fitted) requires a L2 alarm system. A mostly unmanned warehouse cannot rely upon a manual response and an automatic fire detection system and/or sprinkler system will be warranted. Historically, the type and extent of fire detection is often dictated by external influences rather than by a measured assessment of the risk and the determination of the most appropriate and effective fo rm of detection. These influences may include the requirements of legislation as enforced by the Fire Authority and Building Control Body, or the requirements of interested parties, such as the Insurer. The alarm will also be capable of operating extinguishing and smoke control systems. Actuation will close fire dampers, open smoke vents and close heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems or switch them over to extraction mode Figure When detecting in large open areas such as atria, warehouses etc, the detection device is likely to be some distance vertically and horizontally from the fire source. Consequently, detection methods should be applicable for such circumstances. There are a number of considerations for protecting such environments, these can include smoke and heat dilution as the fire plume rises towards the fire detectors, the effects of stratification and air currents taking the smoke and gasses away from the detectors. When attempting to assess the probable time to detection, there would need to be a detailed assessment of the environmental conditions affecting fire growth, as the environment is likely to play a major part in the success or failure of the detection system. In this case: tgrowth will be based upon typical fire models for the range of likely combustibles; tmove will be based upon a number of assumptions of how the environment will affect the way the detected products will travel towards the detectors. Parameters to be considered here are the effects of HVAC, the continued entrainment of air as the smoke plume rises (with the possible eddy current created by cooling of the smoke), and the effects of stratification. Warehouses offer particularly unusual challenged to these types of detector since point type smoke detectors are not recommended for use above 10.5m except in unusual circumstances. The reason for this is the well-known phenomenon of smoke stratification, where smoke from any given size fire only produces sufficient thermal buoyancy to raise smoke to a given level (often well away from detectors), rendering conventional smoke detection virtually useless in this application. Beam detectors however negate the problems associated with point detectors. Beam smoke detectors make use of the obscuration property of smoke to detect a fire. They may consist of a combined transmitter and receiver unit with reflective element, or a separate transmitter and receiver unit. They are normally mounted on walls at either side of a monitored area, such that there is a clear line of sight between one unit and the other. Typically, an infrared beam is transmitted along this length. In the event of smoke passing through the beam, the receiver measures the resultant attenuation. The value CL, expressed in dB, is used to identify the reduction in intensity of the light beam, defined by the following equation: I0= received intensity without reduction in intensity I = received intensity after reduction in intensity The main requirements are that: The detectors have sufficient immunity to false alarm conditions such that CL, min is less than 0.5 dB; The variation in response between successive operations should be limited such that the ratio between the maximum value of CL, max recorded and the minimum value CL, min is less than 1.6. Although this data is used in testing detectors, it may also be appropriate in assessing on-site conditions. By contrast, high sensitivity aspirating systems may often have their sampling pipes arranged to sample from multiple heights within the protected area, overcoming this problem. However they are cost prohibitive within this scheme. 5 Analysis and computations 5.1 Assumption To demonstrate the building complies with the functional requirement B1 a fire safety engineering analysis of the performance based design will need to be adopted as recommended in BS7974. Making use of basic physical provisions to ensure life safety, but design evaluation depends upon a time based comparison of the time available for the occupants to escape (Available Safe Escape Time, (ASET)) and the escape time (Required Safe Escape Time, (RSET)). This will allow the design to deviate form the restrictions imposed by the prescribed rules Research on Evacuation Times. Standard fire safety recommendations for means of escape relate to travel time, i.e. the time taken to travel to and through exits to a place of relative safety. However, it is widely acknowledged that the time taken for occupants to start to evacuate can be considerably longer than the time taken to actually move out of the building. An extract of Table C.1 from BS7974-6 is partially replicated in Figure 4. This demonstrates the potential variation in pre-movement times of evacuees which is dependent upon the level of management and fire alarm provision. The management of this building will adopt a proactive fire safety management approach to comply with standard fire safety regulations for the workplace. Figure A1-A2: Automatic fire detection and alarm throughout building A3: Automatic fire detection and alarm only in certain areas, or manual call points only throughout There has been a number of real fire tests carried out on high rack storage arrangements by insurance companies. Tests carried out by Underwriters Laboratories Inc. concluded that fire size is unlikely to exceed 5MW where in-rack sprinklers have been provided. Smaller tests on single racks of clothing would indicate a typical peak heat release rate of 2.5MW for isolated arrangements. BRE 368 would also suggest a peak heat release rate of 2.5MW for sprinklered fires using fast response sprinkler heads. Within this project an assumption of a 5 MW fire is made 5.2 Calculation procedures How occupants respond to a fire will depend initially on the cue they received. The components of occupants evacuation times are recognition time, response time and travel time. Both recognition and response times are known as pre-movement time. The former represents the time taken to appreciate that the alarm is a fire alarm relating to the occupant (as opposed to a security alarm, car alarm etc). During this time occupants will continue with activities as they were prior to the activation of the alarm, e.g. staff members undertaking duties, etc. The latter represents the duration taken by occupants to begin to move towards an escape route, e.g. investigative behaviour shutting down machinery etc. Figure In warehouse buildings occupants are generally familiar with their surroundings and are trained in fire emergency evacuation protocols. In the proposed storage facility and associated offices, occupants should be familiar with the sounding of the fire alarm and as such would commence evacuation reasonably promptly. Where a reasonable standard of fire detection is provided, BS7974-6 recommends that familiar occupants of a building can be expected to take between 1mins and 2mins before they start to evacuate. The characteristics and determination of evacuation behaviour can be simplified in terms of the following broad categories of behaviour; the first is Pre-Movement Behaviour and the second is Travel Behaviour. The recommendations of BS7974-6 have been used to determine the Required Safe Egress time (RSET) for the proposed and code compliant layouts. RSET can be calculated using the following formula: rtrset = rtdet + rtalarm + rtpre + rttravel Where; rtrset = Total time required for escape (secs) rtdet = Time to detection (secs) rtalarm = Time to alarm (secs) rtpre = Pre-movement time (secs) rttravel = Travel time (secs) Travel Time is the time required for the occupants to walk to an exit leading to a place of safety. Walking time may be expressed as a distribution of individual times or as a single time such as an average time required. As stated earlier we will assume the maximum travel distance within the warehouse is 60m with no dead end situations allowing for two directions of escape from all areas due to the number of exits provided from the warehouse. We will take the speed of from Annex D PD7974-6 2004 as 1.4m/s. Distance 60(m) ttrav(walking) = - = = 43(s) Speed of travel 1.4 m S 6 Comparison of results with acceptance criteria 6.1 Summary of the results of this case study To meet with code recommendations a Type M manual fire alarm system would be necessary in a standard warehouse building. However, the provision of an automatic fire detection and alarm system is an integral part of the overall fire safety package from a fire engineering perspective. 6.2 Result The building will be provided with an automatic fire alarm and detection system meeting the recommendations of BS 5839-1 Category L2. The system will consist of beam detectors within the warehouse area. Manual call points will be provided at each storey exit and throughout the premises to give warning to the occupants in case of an event other than fire, a voice alarm system will also be installed in accordance with the recommendations of BS 5839-8. The sound level of the alarm system should generally be at least: 60dB (A) in open plan areas>60m2, e.g. offices (excluding a 500mm perimeter boundary) 60dB (A) in staircases and rooms less than 60m2 5dB (A) above the ambient noise level. Table B.1 Typical occupational noise levels (Lp) Figure 7 Conclusions 7.1 Fire protection requirements It is proposed to provide a high standard of automatic fire detection and alarm system throughout the warehousing compartment. A manual system will cover the office area of the premises. The standard of detection and alarm in the building will affect the general time to warning for occupants and provide an enhanced level of fire safety through early warning and shorter evacuation times. Activation of the sprinkler system will also lead to the fire alarm sounding throughout the building. To ensure a conservative estimation of fire alarm activation our analysis has been based on an anticipated sprinkler system activation time within 2 minutes. Many code compliant warehouse facilities with code compliant travel distances only require manual fire detection to meet with code recommendations. Therefore the time to detection would depend on the time taken for occupants in the room of fire origin to raise the alarm. However, should the room of fire origin be unoccupied then the time to alarm for people who may be in rooms remote from the fire would depend on them or other occupants becoming aware of cues of the fire scenario, e.g. sounds of burning material, smell of smoke or seeing smoke through a vision panel. Although BS7974-6 recommends a time to detection of at least 15 minutes for such scenarios, a reasonable worst case for a typical code compliant open plan warehouse could be 3 5 minutes. The fire alarm and detection system will be an addressable analogue system. Multi-state detectors will be capable of giving normal, fire and alternate signals dependent upon the required sensitivity. The control panel will be sited in a low fire risk area (office). It shall have suitable ambient light and sound levels for both staff and FRS use. The fully addressable system will give floor/zone and the specific address of the signals location. There will be 100 second fault monitoring. It will be provided with staff alarm, as well as test, silence and reset buttons. Plan of warehouse Figure

BMW’s Competitive Edge †A Case Study

Premium car makers operate in a highly dynamic and competitive marketplace. BMW is among the companies that have shown a stronghold on global markets that include Europe, US, Asia, and emerging markets in the Middle East. Its history shows instances when it has come under pressure from market forces, but the European carmaker has proven, time and again, that it can spring back and rejoin the race of top industry players. Recent years have even seen BMW appealing to new-generations users opting for winning design standards and quality. Indeed, BMW’s latest car models boast of enhanced performance and dynamics, making the carmaker one of the strongest luxury car contenders that continues to aggressively battle for consumer attention in the contemporary age. BMW’s Competitive Edge – A Case Study Cutting-edge technology, driving pleasure, comfort and luxury are closely associated with luxury cars like BMW, Lexus, Mercedes Benz, and Audi. For the average car buyer, each of these marques commands a strong presence. On the other end of the spectrum are the discerning clientele, whose fierce loyalty to a car brand or high regard for automaking heritage may account for sales volume uptrends. Indeed, premium carmakers, among them German automaker BMW, continually vie for consumer attention and nurture high hopes of hitting record sales despite rising costs related to materials and new model launches. What BMW has in great measure, though, is a sound business strategy that banks not so much on decades of experience and foresight but more on using a coherent theme or image as â€Å"the ultimate driving machine† to utmost advantage. After many false starts in the twenty years after the war,† (Kay, 1999, para. 8) BMW has clearly made â€Å"the match between the distinctive capabilities of the organization and the market opportunities it faces† (Kay, 1999, para. 8). In recent years, the pressure on BMW has been emanating mainly from the persistent threat of substitute products. Notwithstanding its vast experience and â€Å"ability to develop and use sophisticated technical skills†¦ the source of competitive advantage for so many German companies,† (Kay, 1999, para. ) BMW faces the tough possibility that luxury car buyers may opt for alternative brands in the market vis-a-vis the latter’s price offerings. The perceived level of product differentiation is another thing to contend with in the highly competitive luxury automobile industry. What may strike some customers as a refreshing innovation may be totally revolting for others. In most cases, it all boils down to a brand war. A satisfied BWM owner, as personified by the high-level executive of a fast-expanding conglomerate in Asia, cited brand as the most compelling reason to purchase a BMW. â€Å"It’s a good, reliable car† (J. Lucas, personal communication, July 31, 2008). Yet, as another ranking business executive asserted, â€Å"Mercedes Benz is still the best, while Audi is the rising star† (A. Lagmay, personal communication, July 31, 2008). Indeed, consumer tastes and requirements are evolving, and premium car producers who have made sizable investments in automobile design, quality and performance stand to reap some profit. In BMW’s case, solid growth was realized during the first half of 2008, despite testing economic conditions in certain automobile markets across the world (â€Å"BMW Group increases sales,† 2008, para. ). Today, pressure is mounting with the threat posed by the entry of new competitors. Automobile industry players stepping up price competition had been evident in the first few years of the 21st century, with â€Å"low price or incentives† serving as the â€Å"prevalent means to displace market share from competitors† (Lencioni, 2004, p. 735). To contain the costs, companies like BMW set up production plants in global growth markets. Business cycles fluctuate, though. While the European prestige car maker posted increased sales of its BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands by 4. percent from January to June 2008 (â€Å"BMW Group increases sales,† 2008, para. 1), it was â€Å"not entirely able to avoid the difficult economic trends in important individual markets such as the USA and Japan†¦ global sales slipped 2. 8 per cent in the month of June to 146,138 units† (â€Å"BMW Group increases sales,† 2008, para. 2). Under its Chief Executive Helmut Panke, BMW has dramatically expanded its product offerings, setting its sights on market segments of the future. However, â€Å"moving into smaller cars meant earning the lower margins that were typical of those market segments† (Lencioni, 2004, p. 41) as compared to mid-size sedans and luxury limousines. As an analyst pointed out, â€Å"Compared with volume producers, BMW’s manufacturing costs are much higher, its product development cost more costly, and its purchasing costs higher† (Edmondson, Palmeri, Grow, & Tierney, 2003, para. 13). In essence, BMW has had to contend not just with the bargaining power of customers, but also with the bargaining power of suppliers which provide the unique resources to sustain its main sources of competitive advantage: brand quality and reputation of reliability. Nowadays, as the intensity of competitive rivalry heats up, BMW’s burning obsession with performance and brand identity or image has aided the firm in closing the widening gap with other luxury cars. BMW’s research and development teams have been caught in a frenzy to maintain competitive edge. â€Å"Development teams that pore over everything from (such) market feedback to innovations are encouraged to engage in `friendly fighting’ to decide the vital characteristics of a new BMW† (Edmondson, et. al, 2003, para. 24). As it faces countless threats and risks, BMW remains poised to prevail and deliver. Among the critical success factors in the high-end market where BMW competes is its design and brand appeal, which had become the customers’ overriding choice features (Lencioni, 2004, p. 741). Effective branding, likewise, created â€Å"emotional connections between customers on one side and products, salesmen, other users on the other† (Lencioni, 2004, p. 736) although this was true not just for BMW but for other luxury marques as well. One thing that worked to BMW’s advantage had been its â€Å"firm control on the supply chain† (Lencioni, 2004, p. 737). BMW nurtured long-running and dependable supplier relationships. Coupled with a highly talented workforce that operated at â€Å"the most flexible and most productive† factories in Germany (Edmondson, et. al, 2003, para. 20) to churn out vehicles with styling variations, unprecedented performance and safety features and individuality, the German carmaker remains a potent force to reckon with in the international automobile industry.

The Insider Secret on Legal Writing Services Exposed

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