VK Sir,

I would still go for a false alarm rather than a missed alert.

Alarms (manual / systemic) are set based on specific criteria. Based on some trend observed in past false alarms it can further be calibrated to improve the predictability. The end objective is that we do not end up in a situation that can lead to unwarranted consequences.

A missed alert will lead to a negative outcome in most cases. If the alerts (control system) do consider adequate buffer it will help us to recover but not in all scenarios.

While that's my preference, practical solution will depend on various factors like cost of deploying the mechanism, maintenance, criticality of process being monitored, etc.

Hi,

 

Let's be specific about false alarm% and %missed .

False alarm suggests that the object is actually good but alarm is showing as bad object. This might cause inhouse rejection increase but customer is not bothered about it.

Missed rate suggests that the object is actually not good (NG) but passed. This action will pass the NG object to customer and based on the severe nature of the NG , a customer complaint may arise.

So, missed rate should be treated more seriously.

Statistically for attribute measurement < 2% missed rate is considered as good and < 5% false alarm are considered in good catagory as general guideline.

 

Regards,

Sourav Das

Six Sigma Professional

HI,

 

well i think,

a false alarm will not cause any loss to company rather than creating some confusions on shop floor(mostly neglected in this Automated world). but if a alert is missed, it may affect the economy and heavy loss can be seen(if alert of coolant is missed in CNC and is not turned off,the overfilling of coolant may cause loss for company).
Thus, according to me we should prefer a false alarm and not a missed alert.

 

Regards,

 

H.S.Lingayat

Thanks for participating in this discussion. I agree with comments above in the context they are presented, but want to add a caution. And the caution is - we should just be talking only of occasional occurrences.

An occasional false alarm is fine but too many of these can lead to loss of business or even closure of a company. As an extreme example, let us consider an automotive company that decides to do 100 percent inspections on all parts leading to high cost of product which finally leads to loss of market.

We need to also consider that a false alarm can lead to process adjustments when none is required in an existing good process. Comments welcome.

A false alarm is acceptable, as it is a highlighted to everyone. However, excessive alarm is something that one need to keep an eye on it.

A missed alert is something like a loss is coming for e.g. financial, mechanical, human or anything, but negligence or a lazy attitude did not trigger the awareness about the same.

So, false alarm can be accepted over missed alert, but again, everything is situational.

Agreed that false alarms are acceptable as compared to a missed alert. Though false alarms can increase the incidence of rechecks, it can definitely avoid reworks. In healthcare industry missed alerts can be fatal.

Hi 

False alarm is nothing but defect in defect identifying method, and missed alert can be handled by error report developed in the application so missed alert should not be that big issue. 

so I would fix false alarm first then I would think of missed alert. 

HI All,

My way of looking at with an alarm/alert that is received from our outlook:

False Alarm - An outlook giving me a false alarm about a meeting that is cancelled.. I can review and correct it..Too many false once means there is a series that has been cancelled and I am receiving the alert unwantedly..

Missed Alert - An alert that should remind me of a meeting getting missed cannot be taken..A team huddle getting missed because of it missed - No way!

 

False Alarm - An improvement in quality score of a person who doesn't perform well - Something to check with the sample.

Missed Alert - A hike in a kind of sample is missed to alert, can give a missed opportunity to quality.