Not Every Alert Is an Exception: Why Context and Consequence Matter

Visibility programs begin to fail when every deviation is treated as work. An alert becomes an exception only when context and consequence make the change operationally meaningful, and that distinction becomes more important as event volumes rise.
An event says that something changed. An exception says that the change threatens an objective, constraint, commitment, or policy. A shipment that is twenty minutes late may be irrelevant if inventory is abundant and the dock is flexible; a ten-minute