SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

BACHELOR OF QUANTITY SURVEYING (HONOURS)

MARCH 2020

BLD61304

BUILDING SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

STUDENT NAME : CHAN JIAN PEEN

STUDENT ID : 0343228
TUTOR : DR. KAM KENN JHUN
Table of Content

No Content Page
1.0 Introduction 1
2.0 Issues Occur from Movement Control Order 2
2.1 Movement and traffic of customers 2
2.2 Health and safety of customers 2
2.3 Maintenance and services of the building service systems 3
3.0 Standard of Procedure (SOP) during Movement Control Order 4
3.1 Movement control for customers 4
3.2 Health and safety control for customers 4
3.3 Maintenance and services and schedule of the building services
systems 5-6
4.0 Compliance of Regulations 6
5.0 Case Study 7-8
6.0 Reference 9-10
1.0 Introduction

Since the beginning of the year 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has
gradually spread to more than 150 countries around the world. This global pandemic is beyond
our imagination. At the early stage, Malaysia was still a secured country from this incident.
However, there were two major events caused the increment of active cases in Malaysia. From
3rd March until 15th March, the active cases increased to a worried situation. To prevent
spreading of the virus, the Malaysia government has been proposed the Movement Control
Order (MCO) on 16th March 2020. Along with the essential supplies of each household,
hypermarkets own obligations to ensure the health and safety, movement control and traffic
control of customers included with the common maintenance and services for building is well
controlled as usual under MCO. This article aimed to discuss about issues that may occur from
and standard of procedure during MCO.

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2.0 Issues Occur from Movement Control Order

Due to the Movement Control Order (MCO), the lifestyle of Malaysians will be totally
different. With this problem, it will cause several issues during this event especially the only
place that opened to public for daily needs. The issues are movement and traffic of customers,
health and safety of customers and, maintenance and services of the building service systems.

2.1 Movement and traffic of customers

Movement Control Order (MCO) can be defined as the restrictions of movement to the
public. Panic buying may occur since the civilians will think that the entire industry in different
sector will be stop working during the MCO. Therefore, the Malaysians will start to stockpile
the daily needs which may increases the crowd available in the shopping complex. In addition,
according to the regulations of MCO, only the head of the family is allowed to do groceries.
However, there are elders (60 years or above) are from village and their children who are
working in the city might not be able to help them in doing groceries. According to this issue,
the crowds might be a trouble for them to doing groceries. Other than that, the demand of
groceries will be higher than normal season.

2.2 Health and safety of customers

This global pandemic issue was caused by Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Therefore, the requirement of hygiene of an individual is extremely high. Customers are from
the public which might probably have physical contact with the person who is suspected with
the virus. As this disease is a type of infectious disease, the hygiene of an individual therefore
should be paid attention by the related unit. In the hypermarkets, not only hygiene of
individuals should have been paid close attention, the hygienic of goods and groceries should
have be taken good care too. This is because the goods are from external environment which
also have the virus attached on the goods too. Furthermore, the cashier will have contact with
the customers. Bank notes as known as one of the dirtiest items as there may be a lot of bacteria
on the bank notes. Although the customer and cashier might have gone through the proper
sanitizing procedure, the hygienic of bank notes may be neglected.

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2.3 Maintenance and services of the building service systems

Other than the issues for customers should be consider during MCO, the maintenance
and services of the building service systems have to be discussed during this critical moment.
During MCO period, there are only a few service industries are allowed to open for business.
Therefore, maintenance and services for the building services might be an issue for the owner
to maintain the condition of the services in the building. There are several types of services in
the building, they are firefighting system, air conditioning system, electrical system and
transportation system. For the firefighting system, it is important to ensure that everything is
working as it relates to the safety during fire event. Besides, air conditioning and transportation
system are the building services that bring convenience to customers and the convey activity
for goods. If the system has gone down, it will cause damage to the reputation of the shopping
mall.

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3.0 Standard of Procedure (SOP) during Movement Control Order

Based on the issues discussed above, as a manager of the hypermarket, I owned the
obligation to ensure that the issues have to be controlled and overcome by using professional
measures by obeying the Standard of Procedure (SOP) from Malaysian National Security
Council.

3.1 Movement control for customers

According to Malaysian National Security Council (MKN), the related unit has to limit
the quantity of customers from entering into the hypermarket. The management of the
hypermarket can design the number of customers to be limited according to the size of the
hypermarket. As an example, NSK Kuchai Lama limited only 50 customers per time. This is
because it can prevent close contact between customers. Other than that, to prevent excessive
of customers in the queue, the hypermarket has to obey the rules to control and limit the flow
of customers. (MKN Bil 2, action no 2, 2020) To effectively control the flow of customers, it
is necessary to reduce the number of parking bay. With the smaller number of parking bay, the
customers will prefer go to the other hypermarket with less crowd than waiting.

3.2 Health and safety control for customers

During this Movement Control Order (MCO), although the peoples in Malaysia have
to remain themselves in the house, there are still exception which is the employees in particular
sector. For the employees who working for the hypermarkets, they are allowed to remain full
capacity of attendance during MCO. (MKN, 2020) However, to protect the health and safety
for customers, professional measures are ought to be taken out which is the employees have to
obey the regulations provide by MKN. Every employee must put on the mask before entering
into the premises. The management has to ensure that the employees, suppliers and customers
were passed through the temperature checking before entering into the hypermarket. MKN
stated that hand sanitizer has to be prepared in front of the entrance, this is to ensure that every
customer is well sanitized before entering the shop. Other than that, the hypermarket has to
encourage and perform ‘Public Awareness Program’ as known as ‘Program Kesedaran Awam’
to the publics. As an example, encouraging the publics put on the masks before entering into
the shop, ensure that every customer is distancing each other for a one metre distance and
increase their self-hygiene awareness.

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3.3 Maintenance and services and schedule of the building services systems

According to the notice from Malaysian National Security Council (MKN) to the
groceries trader during Movement Control Order, the operation time is 8 o’clock in the morning
to 11 o’clock in the night and the time opened for customer is 10 o’clock in the morning to 10
o’clock in the night. As this global pandemic was occurred due to personal and public hygiene
issue, therefore, requirement of hygiene should be paid close attention. Hypermarket has the
obligation to keep their area clean and free from the virus. To abide the rules and regulations
provided by the MKN, the sanitizing process for public area should be conducted after the
operation hour which is after 11 o’clock in the night. However, some area that requires a higher
level or hygiene requirement such as cashier, surau, toilet, office and store have to conduct the
sanitizing activity for total three times a day during the operation hour. Other than that, the
MKN recommends the merchant to encourage the usage of contactless payment or cashless
payment as known as e-wallet. In this technology era, contactless payment is allowed to prove
their potential during this critical moment. The examples of contactless payment in Malaysia
are TNG e-Wallet, Grab Pay and Boost. Except putting on tape with one metre of distance,
vertical transportation such as lifts are also required to design a few compartments to separate
the crowd and limit the number of passengers in the lift.

Diagram 3.3.1 shows that the social distancing in lift for Maybank Tower

Other than that, other building services such as lighting, air-conditioner, fire-fighting
system, electrical system and transportation system have to be used wisely as the specialists
and in-house specialist might not be able to provide maintenance during MCO. Therefore,
scheduled building services such as fire-fighting system, they are required to be conducted

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inspection in a certain period. If the next maintenance interval of particular component is less
than six months, it is recommended to conduct the maintenance before the MCO starts as the
firefighting system is very important to the building and also the lives of individuals. For the
lighting and air conditioner system, the person in-charge can reduce the usage of these systems
as the crowd will comparatively lesser than normal season. To ensure that the particular zone
has the coverage of air-conditioning and lighting, the hypermarket is allowed to use the lighting
and air-conditioning by zoning them alternatively.

4.0 Compliance of Regulations

Based on the activity and protocol provided by Malaysian National Security Council
(MKN), there are a several regulations have to comply with. These regulations are to ensure
that the Movement Control Order can be executed successfully. Hypermarket must carry out
the sanitizing process every day. (MKN Bil 1, action no 2, 2020) In addition, number of
customers in the hypermarket has to be limited in a time which varies due to the size of premises.
Other than that, it is a must to ensure that every employee is following the rules and regulations
which are to put on the face mask during on-duty and increase the awareness of hygiene of the
premise and employees. Not only employees have to take note on obeying the rules, the
hypermarket also have to ensure that every customer to abide with the rules which are to put
on hand sanitizer and go through temperature checking before entering into the market area.

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5.0 Case Study

Based on this global pandemic issue, many of the hypermarkets and the shopping malls
have been taken action in preventing and assisting the government to conduct the Movement
Control Order successfully by complying the activity and protocol provided by the government.
Diagrams below showed that the safety measures that have been taken by Cold Storage @
Solaris, Mont Kiara.

Diagram 5.0.1 and 5.0.2 shows that the opening for entrance has been minimised due to
limitation on number of customers and the spacing indicator inside a lift.

Diagram 5.0.3 and 5.0.4 shows that the notices provided to the visitors within the premise.

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Diagram 5.0.5 shows that the notice around the public area within the premise.

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6.0 Reference

Gonzalez, M., 2020. COVID-19 Outbreak: Facing The Wall In Lifts Is One Way Of Practicing
Social Distancing. [online] MSN. Available at: <https://www.msn.com/en-
sg/news/world/covid-19-outbreak-facing-the-wall-in-lifts-is-one-way-of-practicing-
social-distancing/ar-BB11wAdd?li=BBr8Cnr> [Accessed 12 May 2020].

Laman Web MKN. 2020. SOP Pembukaan Semula Ekonomi | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 1, action no. 1 (2020). Kebersihan Premis, | Laman Web MKN. [online] Available
at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/> [Accessed
12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 1, action no. 2 (2020). Kebersihan Premis, | Laman Web MKN. [online] Available
at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/> [Accessed
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MKN, Bil 2, action no. 1 (2020). Pengurusan pelanggan, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 2, action no. 2 (2020). Pengurusan pelanggan, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 2, action no. 3 (2020). Pengurusan pelanggan, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 3, action no. 1 (2020). Saringam Kesihatan, | Laman Web MKN. [online] Available
at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/> [Accessed
12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 4, action no. 1 (2020). Pengunaan Hand Sanitiser, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

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MKN, Bil 5, action no. 1 (2020). Pemakaian Face Mask, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 6, action no. 1 (2020). Pemantauan dan Pematuhan, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 6, action no. 2 (2020). Pemantauan dan Pematuhan, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

MKN, Bil 7, action no. 1 (2020). Penjarakan sosial, | Laman Web MKN. [online] Available at:
<https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/> [Accessed 12
May 2020].

MKN, Bil 8, action no. 1 (2020). Transaksi tanpa sentuhan, | Laman Web MKN. [online]
Available at: <https://www.mkn.gov.my/web/ms/sop-pembukaan-semula-ekonomi/>
[Accessed 12 May 2020].

SAFETY4SEA. 2011. Periodical Inspection And Maintenance Of Fire-Fighting Systems And

Portable Fire Extinguishers. [online] Available at: <https://safety4sea.com/periodical-
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fire/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=490bd0f1994f48b8cce1911b9c790127186d0d9b-
1589288570-0-AYIq6oivMEwFMj2KhKReq6xF-9lhtfMHWXobYfoGNO3-
v3UyyQ3IVi2e8d-laTaZ-36yas-
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