False alarms human errors

Type I error happens when the alarm is issued while the process is in control. This leads to a false alarm that requires a search for an assignable cause that is not actually happening. This phenomenon is undesirable in practice since it increases the process downtime, requires human intervention, and generates user disaffection towards the quality control tool. 

It is very likely that the investigation into the false alarm will indicate that the alarm was caused by equipment faults, malicious acts, human error, or activities near detectors. 

Human errors - examples of human errors that may result in a false fire alarm include the following ... 

The errors of the human-computer system are also classified into false negatives (the user fails to initiate an alarm response despite a target being present) and false positives (the user initiates an alarm response in the absence of a target) and the system s dependability is described by FN and FP error probabilities (or equivalent pairs of measures). Another important figure is the alarm response rate - the cumulative frequency of alarm responses, either correct or spurious - since these are costly and most systems can only function if this rate is less than a certain threshold. 

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