A Fire & ERT solution for the pharmaceutical industry

Working with tier-one pharmaceutical companies, PlantQuest digitize facilities with intelligent mapping. Among others, it allows our customers to locate fire & EHS assets across the facility in the most efficient manner possible, helping to protect people and plant through reducing emergency response times.

One of PlantQuest’s most recent deployments was for one of Europe’s largest pharmaceutical facilities. PlantQuest commissioned a bespoke solution concerning locating input devices on the client’s fire alarm system spread across 1,000,000 sq. ft, containing over 1,700 rooms and 27,000m of walkways.

Through the experience of the onsite-based emergency response team, the client discovered that their workflow surrounding the location of their 5,500 alarming devices (primarily smoke and heat detectors) could be streamlined and improved.

The client required a system to visually map, locate and route to any of the 5,500 mapped assets across the 1,700 rooms from any location within the facility. With the client running 24-hour operations and with downtimes potentially costing millions of euros per hour, it was vital for the client that the implementation of the PlantQuest solution would have no impact on ongoing site activities.

Due to the complexity and structural nature of the client’s facility, the availability of both Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity across the plant was at a premium, and it was paramount that the solution delivered would operate with full functionality within no connectivity areas.

The Fire & ERT solution delivered by PlantQuest enables the world-renowned pharmaceutical facility to efficiently manage its fire and emergency assets, aiding in reducing emergency response times. The solution has a user-friendly interface, coupled with cutting-edge technology surpassing the client’s requirements allowing the user to navigate to any of the 5,500 assets mapped across the facility. The algorithmic-based navigation functionality operates entirely independent of any signals such as GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 4G, meaning that the customer was not required to install and maintain costly telecoms infrastructure whilst also having complete confidence in its functionality at all times.

Due to the very nature of the client’s facility, assets are consistently added, removed and updated, and so PlantQuest has also delivered their Management Portal, allowing the customer to self-manage the data driving their solution whereby once the tablets had sufficient Wi-Fi connection, the tablets within the field would automatically update.

Installed on IP67 Active Pro Samsung tablets, any employee, response team member or contractor can now navigate the 1,000,000 sq. ft facility with ease whilst being aware of any hazards, restricted areas and equipment required to route to a location before departing. The client’s intelligent digital mapping twin was developed and deployed remotely, with PlantQuest representatives spending as little as five hours on-site.

Having successfully deployed the solution, the client has gained and experienced:

• Improved communication amongst Security, Maintenance, EHS and ERT teams.
• An intuitive and easy-to-use digital twin for the 1,000,000 sq. ft facility.
• Streamlined fire system maintenance workflows, in turn reducing costs.
• The response team have an effective way of sharing valuable tacit knowledge.
• Employees can now locate equipment, conduct line walks and navigate the complex facility.
• Improved outcome for maintenance teams (Preventative and corrective).

For more information, go to www.plantquest.com