Updated Fire Alarm Improves Productivity at Distillery

By Julie Brown, Executive Director of Business Transformation Services at Johnson Controls

Every organization wants to ensure its fire alarms are ready to sound off in an emergency, but nuisance alarms in non-emergency situations can quickly exhaust both time and resources. This was the problem that a distillery was facing – false fire alarms were causing frequent pauses in operations and were negatively impacting productivity.

When employees had to evacuate buildings, work was temporarily stopped, increasing the time it took employees to complete their jobs which therefore increased costs. When employees were not in the building, electricity used was wasted, and fire trucks making unnecessary trips to the plant also resulted in additional emissions. The organization wanted to make sure they were operating efficiently for both costs and sustainability, and knew the answer was a complete overhaul of the existing fire alarm system. False fire alarms also present the risk that when a real emergency occurs, employees will not take it seriously and could assume that it is just another false alarm, which presents a huge safety risk.

Fire safety and accuracy across a campus

Due to the size of the distillery - complete with historic buildings in addition to the production complex - the organization needed to partner with an integrator that had experience implementing fire alarm systems that covered large buildings and could be connected across multiple facilities. Johnson Controls had extensive experience providing campus settings with fire alarm systems and was equipped to provide the distillery with a solution that met their unique needs thanks to Johnson Controls fully customizable range of products and services. To solve the problem, Johnson Controls implemented fourteen new fire panels on the property that were catered specifically to the needs of the distillery.

Connectivity leading to productivity

With Johnson Controls solutions and services, the distillery improved connectivity and eliminated the occurrence of false alarms, resulting in increased cost savings and reduced emissions. Not only does an accurate fire panel system create a more productive work environment, but it also ensures that alarms signal a true emergency and employees know they can take the alarm seriously and respond in the appropriate manner.

To learn more about Johnson Controls fire detection systems, please visit www.johnsoncontrols.com/fire-detection.