Site and Plant layout

There are several factors that need to be considered when doing a plant layout. The factors include the

need to keep distances for transfer of materials between plant and storage units to a minimum to

reduce costs and risks, the geographical limitations of the site, interaction with existing or planned

facilities on site such as existing roadways, drainage and utilities routings, interaction with other

plants on site, the need for plant operability and maintainability, the need to locate hazardous

materials facilities as far as possible from site boundaries and people living in the local

neighbourhood, the need to prevent confinement where release of flammable substances may occur,

the need to provide access for emergency services, the need to provide access for emergency escape

routes for on-site personnel, and lastly the need to provide acceptable working conditions for

operators and labours.

The most important factors of plant layout as far as safety aspects are concerned are those to prevent,

limit and mitigate escalation of adjacent events, ensure safety within on-site occupied buildings,

control access of unauthorised personnel, and facilitate access for emergency services. Designer of

plant layout must consider all of the factors mentioned above.

Proposed Site Layout

The site layout can be divided into two main parts. At the left was the production part and at the right

was the office or development part. The parts were separated as a safety precaution to give enough

time for peoples to escape at the development part if any emergency such as explosion or fire

happened on the production part. The buildings were arranged to minimize the time spent by a person

to travel between buildings. Administration office is located in front of processing units and adjacent

to the laboratories, where large amount of people working there. Utilities building that may consist of

reboiler, power generator and cooling tower are located near to process building to give most

economical supplies such as gas and steam to the process units in plant. The product and raw

materials will be stored at the entrance for easier transportation through Main Gate 2. The waste

treatment and gas treatment plants are located near to process building. The Main Gate 1 is essential

for peoples to pass by whether for business, works or maybe plant visit whereas, the Main Gate 2

function was to transfer the chemical in or out of the site. The transportation lot provided in the plant

is for the company transport vehicles. Visitor or staff vehicles can park outside of the site to prevent

any disturbance to the plant process transportation. Fire station was located at the production part

because probability of fire occurrence was higher there. Any minor injuries happen to the workers

will be treated at the clinic located near the toilet.

Fire Drill and Emergency Evacuation Procedure

Fire or any other emergencies could happen at any time without warning. They can hurt or kill lives

and destroy properties. A Fire Drill and Emergency Evacuation is a necessary exercise that the

organisation should embark on to ensure readiness and preparedness of the staff in the event of an

emergency. In any emergency situation, saving lives shall always be the first and foremost priority.

Every plant must conduct a fire drill and emergency evacuation for their respective building. It must

be conducted at least twice a year. The safety and health unit will organize and provide safety briefing

to the manager.

The role of manager here was to spread the information to his worker. The objectives of this fire drill

and emergency evacuation procedure are as below:

To provide an orderly emergency response plan for all occupants

To ensure all exit routes, emergency staircases are not obstructed and can be used in an

orderly fashion during emergencies

To ensure fast, organized and smooth evacuation of buildings during emergencies

To train fire drill and emergency evacuation officers to conduct their duties successfully

To test the working conditions and effectiveness of all fire and emergency equipments for all

buildings

During fire drill and emergency evacuation, the escape route was the most important thing to be

obeyed. The escape route must have the sufficiency of existing evacuation routes for emergency

evacuation and their clearance from any obstruction. Other than that, measure the distance that

occupants have to travel to get to the emergency assembly area during emergency evacuation.

Ensuring safe and accessible emergency assembly area and availability of emergency equipments

must be well prepared.

Below were important things need to be prepared when conducting the drill:

Formation of emergency action committee for every area.

Clarify the roles and responsibilities of every officer involved in the emergency action.

Determine the evacuation route, exit doors and emergency staircases and the assembly area.

Commands and evacuation orders for building occupants are prepared.

We have divided the plant area into four different parts for fire drill and emergency evacuation as

shown below:

If emergency happens, all occupants in area A and C must get out to the assembly area at the upside

parking lot through Main Gate 1. Main Gate 1 was the closest door to evacuate to the assembly area

for area A and C. Occupants must follow the evacuation leader instruction to ensure unwanted thing

was prevented from happened. For area B and D, all of the occupants must evacuate through the Main

Gate 2 to the downside parking load for assembly. Further instruction will be given by the safety

leader in the organization if anything important was necessary to be done.