UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

CASE STUDY

SCADA SYSTEMS IN FIRE SYSTEMS

Program : EM220
Course Code : ENT600
Submission Date : NOVEMBER 2017
Lecturer : SIR NURUL HAFEZ BIN ABD HALIL
Members :

No. Student No. Full Name

1. 2014235122 NURUL NAJWA BINTI MOHD NASIR

2. 2014898476 THEADIOUS ANAK AJANG

3. 2014815276 NUR SYAHIRAH BINTI ABD MALIK

4. 2014691234 MICHELLE ANAK DIO

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Table of Content

1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 2

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................................... 3

3.0 OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................... 4

4.0 FINDINGS .................................................................................................................... 5

4.1 Recommendation ....................................................................................................... 5

5.0 SWOT ANALYSIS ON SCADA SYSTEM FOR FIRE SYSTEM OF A

SHOPPING MALL .................................................................................................................. 6

6.0 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 8

7.0 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 10

8.0 Reference .................................................................................................................... 11

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
Zecon Berhad is a private company that involved with engineering and provide
construction services. According to their portal www.zecon.com.my, the vision is to be a world
class corporation providing excellent engineering and construction services meanwhile their
mission is to deliver excellent engineering and construction services that meet their customers’
requirements through good corporate governance practices and superior technologies besides
to have an excellent, dedicated and trained workforce to serve their customers. Zecon also has
cover other fields such as infrastructure, property development, water infrastructure,
healthcare and oil and gas. Under Zecon Berhad, one of our members get an opportunity to
get involved with their current project named as ‘The Proposed Mydin Supermall at Vista
Tunku, Phase 8. Petra Jaya, Kuching and they put trainees under mechanical and electrical
department.

According to their portal www.zecon.com.my, Zecon Berhad is registered with few

recognised agency and government sector named as, Pusat Khidmat Kontraktor (PKK or
Contractor Service Centre) in Bumiputera Kelas A classification under Head I, II, III, IV and
VI, Construction Industries Development Board (CIDB) under Grade G7 for Building, Civil
Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, and Unit Pendaftaran Kontraktor Negeri Sarawak
(UPK) besides registered as supplier of equipment and services to Petronas and its
subsidiaries. Zecon has two branches in Malaysia which are one in Kuching, Sarawak as the
main corporate office and another one in Kuala Lumpur located at Plaza Sentral, KLSentral.
Zecon itself had completed nearly 26 major projects with total values of approximately RM
1.4 billion and one of the projects is Mydin Mall.
Mydin Supermall began in June 2013 and its completion supposed to be in the year
2016. However, due to some issues, they postpone to another year which is till the end of the
year 2017. Mydin Supermall Kuching is being constructed on 2 hectares of land at Vista
Tunku, Petra Jaya, Kuching and it offers good quality shopping for residents that live around
the area.

Figure 1: Mydin Supermall

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2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Since one of our members was under M&E department, his job scopes really on track
based on the education background. His duties cover mechanical and electrical sectors like
hose reels, emergency light, exit signage, wall opening, access manholes, travelator, roller
shutter, security and alarm systems, fire safety, ducting pipe and many more inside that
shopping mall. It can be seen that, most of his inspection activities at site project instructed by
his supervisor, covers on checking, identified and report the location of hose reels, emergency
light, exit signage and many more. These items need to be on the right place as per BOMBA
said and it should be functional at the moment even before the launching of the mall. However,
an issues is arise as to do such big inspection inside a big mall plus only a few man power
provided by other sub-contractors causing time constraint for the project. Therefore, we come
out with an idea instead of doing inspection at every angles, every floor, every ceiling of the
building which consume a lot of time, we try to apply SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data
Acquisition) technology on this matter but in a small scale where we focus to use it in fire
systems.

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3.0 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this case study are as follows:-

1. To apply SCADA control system in order to monitor the performance of fire systems
inside a shopping mall.
2. To improve the efficiency, effectiveness and functionality of fire systems as monitored
through SCADA besides increase the productivity of workers and business.

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4.0 FINDINGS

In such a big building like shopping mall, we need a system named Building
Management System. This system acts as intelligent microprocessor where it monitor and
control a building's technical systems and services such as fire systems, air conditioning,
ventilation, lighting and hydraulics. There are many types of systems which depends on the
purpose and the need of the clients and plus in terms of cost. For Mydin Mall, client wants to
use simple system as it takes into account the cost. However, by using simple system it means
the functionality it towards the whole building; to monitor and to control technical systems are
limited. This problem will affect the productivity of the progress of the project due to lack of
M&E man power. Less workers means less supervision towards these technical systems and
they have to work twice hard to do task like inspection on each angle of the systems due to the
disadvantage of the simple system that client use. Therefore, we need to change to better
systems as it helps holistically.to monitor and control technical systems at all floor.

4.1 Recommendation

Here, we would like to suggest to use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) to monitor and to control technical systems inside the shopping mall. Even though
it costs a lot, however it does cover the whole building where in this case study we are focusing
the fire systems. Now, many big company and buildings installed SCADA systems where it
has direct integration into all other building services such as security, access control, CCTV,
fire, lifts and many more. Fire system consists of hose reel system, dry riser system, wet riser
system, sprinkler system, main fire alarm panel, gas cylinder for fire suppression system and
many more. By having SCADA systems, we might be able to monitor the performance of these
systems from far besides early detection of problems and saving energy consumption. On next
page, SWOT analysis on SCADA system for fire system of a shopping mall are presented in a
table for further information.

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5.0 SWOT ANALYSIS ON SCADA SYSTEM FOR FIRE SYSTEM OF A
SHOPPING MALL
INTERNAL FACTORS
STRENGTHS (+)
 SCADA system has an ability to
improve system performance,
reliability.
 Analyzing data of the whole mall fire
system were made easier
 Person handling SCADA system will be
alerted instantly without having to be
near the location of the fire system.
 Automatically calculating all the
parameters without using the usual
manual reading and calculating
 Reducing cost of maintaining the fire
system, as the technician will know
what is the problem of the fire system
WEAKNESSES (-)
 Need to have access to the
internet to get current updates.
 If the SCADA system are not
done with much discipline and
proper handling, security of the
mall’s system may be
jeopardizing.
 If the reading is inaccurate, the
technician handling will have a
hard time detecting as they
follow the SCADA system
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 EXTERNAL FACTORS

OPPORTUNITIES (+) THREATS (-)

 The SCADA system can be used in  Security threats, anyone who

most industrial operation, thus it can be
sold widely
 As SCADA system uses the latest
technology development so it will make
it easier for this generation workers.
 The mall will have good feedbacks in
safety features as it can detect any
increase of heat.
 SCADA system can open to much more
creativity and flexible option in using it.
have the IP can jeopardize the
system
 As this project involve heat
sensors, unnecessary heat can
trigger the system.
 Full time employee can be lack
of work

ANALYSIS SUMMARY

Based on the SWOT analysis, the SCADA system use for the fire system is beneficial for
change. This is because, the SCADA system of the opportunity to use a much easier system
rather than using the old manual way. Other than that, the SCADA system can be used in not
just the fire system, the pump system, HVAC system of the mall can be taken accord. Thus,
it is believed that this system can expand widely and help a lot of workers and organizations.

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6.0 Discussion

Based on the research, we proposed Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
system as a system that will help the industry for future well-beings. SCADA system is a system
that can controls and monitor the technical system. In our case, we would like to apply this smart
system on one of our member’s internship company, Zecon Berhad. In this company we focused
on the fire control system. This system is design in order to give warnings to the people inside a
building during fire cases, in other words it detects fire and it is an alarm system. The problem
is, can people control the system at all times? The answer is no, and there come our system, the
SCADA system.

This system had been widely used in a lot of industry especially industries involving
pumps, water levels, reservoirs, controlling the air conditioning system, updating the oil levels,
and etc. Different is, our SCADA system will take charge as a heat detector thus controlling the
water levels needed in case of fire. In this company, there are too many departments and need a
lot of employees to begin with but, with our SCADA system, this can be reduced. We had made
a proper SWOT analysis in order to make sure that this system is sufficiently needed and give
more advantages than disadvantage. This method is to help us be confident in our product and
have faith of its useful service. In every project, there are and will be disadvantages. It will not
result towards failure as it is a way to overcome and come up with other better and helpful ideas.

The SCADA system will help increase the reliability of a certain departments and system.
Not just that, the use of today’s technology will ease the worker. Thinking ahead of time so that
this system can be use in 10 or 15 more years followed by reducing the labour work to help the
country be a much more sophisticated country. Despite the fact that this system is helpful, here
in Malaysia the system is not widely explored mainly because of money. However, one need to
think far ahead on how this system will help reduce cost in big numbers. This is because, handling
the system does not require a person to be close with the subject whereas even from a different
country the system will supposed to give feedback as long as there is internet. Labour cost is not
small and even with cutting only one person will show a lot of difference.

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 However, we do know that there is no perfect system in industry. The SCADA system need
to be handle carefully. This is because, anyone can access the system if they have the required
information. To us, any company has their own regulations and if this happen, the system will
jeopardize the whole company. To reduce this, we do think that the system need a higher end
security and the person handling must be trustworthy, careful and disciplined. We do think that
this can be nurtured. Looking back to the SWOT analysis we do think that this system is a crucial
part to any company and since there are more advantages, it will result in s good way.

Our point is, this SCADA system would have a big potential to be expand in Malaysia as
this country is classified into one of the most developing country in Asia, which include so many
industries like construction, automotive industry, and many more. Therefore, by achieving
Industry 4.0 and “Wawasan 2020”, this kind of idea is really needed. This SCADA system would
bring one’s company to another level which will result in giving more effective and easier work
to the company itself.

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7.0 Conclusion

As a conclusion, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems

have exploited the various technological advances to drive forward their proficiency. The
primary function of a SCADA system is to efficiently connect and transfer information
from a wide range of sources, and at the same time maintaining data integrity and security.
By applying SCADA system to monitor and to control technical systems inside the
shopping mall, especially to our current fire system will help to improve our system of
work a lot. Its installation may be costly, but with this system, we can gain benefits in
terms of our operational system.

SCADA system provide instrumentation for asset or process solutions that can be
easily managed and to provide operational benefits from the SCADA host down to the
instrumentation, not just in terms of controlling and retrieving data but also engineering,
implementing, operating and maintaining these assets. By using this system, we can do
early detection towards any defects occurred in the system and prompt action to repair.
This helps to improve our systems’ performance and reliability. Lesser defects will cost
us less cost to repair. We can increase and secure the safety of the building as well since
this system can detect any rise in the temperature in the building.

The automation system that the SCADA system provides will help us to perform
better as it is able to calculate all the parameters without using the usual manual reading.
The collection and analysis of data also can be made easy. Thus, we may solve the
manpower issues as it can do the tasks automatically. With automation, it means that less
error will occur if compared to humans’ manual handlings. This development is able to
help the today’s generation to work efficiently.

The usage of this system is not restricted to one application only as SCADA is
flexible. It can be used in other industries as well. With the availability of the Internet,
mobile networks and others, there exists new means of providing greater access to
SCADA systems. In a nutshell, we can improve the efficiency, effectiveness and
functionality of fire systems as monitored through SCADA besides increase the
productivity of workers and business.

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8.0 Reference

1. Building management system. (2017, November 05). Retrieved November 06, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_management_system

2. Smith, A. (n.d.). Building Management Systems (BMS). Retrieved November 06, 2017, from
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/bms-the-basics-explained.pdf

3. The Proposed Mydin Supermall At Vista Tunku, Phase 8. Petra Jaya, Kuching. (n.d.).
Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://www.zecon.com.my/projects/zecon-to-build-
the-first-mydin-supermall-in-kuching/

4. Designing Buildings Wiki The construction industry knowledge base. (n.d.). Retrieved
September 26, 2017, from
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Mechanical_engineer

5. Meme Whisper, Working at Purdue University Follow. (2013, November 27). Internship
final presentation. Retrieved September 28, 2017, from
https://www.slideshare.net/memewhisper9/internship-final-presentation-22004921

6. Leo Finkelstein, Jr., Pocket Book of Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists, Third
Edition, McGraw Hill, 2008 (ISBN: 978-0071259255)

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