Most inventory firefighting is avoidable — not by predicting exceptions but by handling them through a structured workflow. An alert is not a workflow: it tells someone there is a problem but does not start the process that resolves it. Ownership has to be unambiguous because when two teams might own an exception neither does, open exceptions need a single visible queue so leaders learn about issues before they escalate, and structured capture is what lets recurring patterns be fixed once instead of being re-solved every time.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't an alert enough?
An alert tells someone there is a problem. It does not start the workflow that resolves it — and that gap is where the firefighting begins.
Why does ownership matter so much for exceptions?
When two teams might own an exception, neither does. Workflow assignment removes the ambiguity at the moment the exception is logged.
How do you stop solving the same exception over and over?
With structured capture. Recurring exceptions are easy to fix once, but without capture the same exception is solved again and again as if it were new.