Site analysis and optimization for a plant fire brigade with several stations
The customer operates several large plant fire brigades in Germany. At one of the locations, existing stations had got a bit dated throughout the years. There was a strategic and operational will for a new building. niologic supported the fire brigade’s management with the analysis and optimization of the fire stations.
Challenge
The existing fire stations no longer fit today’s standards. In operational terms, it was desired to concentrate the sites into a singular one and to leverage synergies. Strategically, there should not be any deterioration of response times for the individual plant sections and facilities. There were different response times per plant permit.
Procedure
niologic worked closely with the company’s infrastructure department. Digital, internal map and building data were imported into a geo database via a geographic information system (GIS) and merged with external map material (ATKIS, OpenStreetMap).
Using the map, niologic created a routable network. Speed profiles for the factory roads were derived from the customer’s test drives and their own calculations. First, the actual state was modelled for the existing fire stations using travel time isochrones.
Several scenarios were examined for a new location. Since the choice of the new location should meet certain regulatory and strategic requirements, the suitability of open spaces was examined together with the customer’s specialist teams. In addition, the numerically best solutions (e.g. minimization of travel times, centrality of the network) were developed. These would however make a possible relocation of other company sectors necessary.
In a further sub-step, the previous deployment volume, hazard potential and response times were integrated into the optimisation. For this purpose, operation data was imported into the geo database from the operations control computer and assigned to buildings and plant sections using algorithms from premergency. The choice of location could be optimized according to the distribution’s focus points.
Result and customer value
The customer received a site analysis for a potential new fire station and an assessment of response times for the status quo and an alternative site. Alternative locations could be weighed including basic conditions and an optimization.
The inclusion of optimal access routes and the deployment volume guaranteed a strategically sensible and geographically optimal position for the new location. A location analysis made an investment within the double-digit million range plausible.
