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Module · When the plan meets the floor
The Operations Team AI Check
Operations is where a clean plan meets a messy floor, and the gap between them is filled by people who have run this route, this line, this shift a hundred times. AI planners are good at the plan and blind to the floor. This module checks the five things that decide whether an AI planner strengthens your operation or overrides the people who keep it running: who can override the system, how exceptions get handled, whether hard-won judgment is written down, whether you measure plan against actual, and whether your alerts still mean anything.
What the five levels look like
Every dimension in this assessment is scored 1 to 5. This is what the levels mean, dimension by dimension. The graded report diagnoses where your own answers land and what to do about it.
Humans can override
- 1Cannot override
- 2Override punished
- 3Override on paper
- 4Override respected
- 5Override, learned from
At the low end: A planner nobody can override is running your operation, and your experienced people are just watching. Give the floor a clear, fast way to overrule the system before the next bad plan goes out. What good looks like: Overrides that are respected and then studied turn your best operators into teachers for the system. Keep feeding what they caught back into the planner so it learns the floor it cannot see.
Exceptions have a path
- 1Pure improvisation
- 2One person knows
- 3Some playbooks
- 4Playbooks, current
- 5Playbooks, drilled
At the low end: When every exception is improvised, your operation is only as good as whoever happens to be on shift. Write down how the three most common surprises get handled, and start there. What good looks like: Drilled playbooks mean an exception is a known move, not a scramble. Keep them current as the operation changes; a playbook for last year's process is a trap dressed as a plan.
Tribal knowledge captured
- 1All in heads
- 2Scattered notes
- 3Partly documented
- 4Documented, used
- 5Documented, feeds AI
At the low end: The knowledge that keeps your operation running is walking out the door every evening and might not come back. Start capturing it now, one hard-won rule at a time, before a resignation makes it urgent. What good looks like: Captured judgment that flows into the AI planner is how the system stops fighting your experienced people and starts backing them. Keep the capture routine alive; the floor keeps learning things worth writing down.
Plan versus actual
- 1Never compared
- 2Gut feel only
- 3Occasional review
- 4Regular review
- 5Feeds back to AI
At the low end: If you never compare the plan to what happened, you cannot know whether the AI is worth the trust you are giving it. Start logging planned versus actual on your key metric this week. What good looks like: Feeding the plan-versus-actual gap back into the planner is how it earns its place instead of assuming it. Keep the loop tight; a planner that learns from its misses beats one that never hears about them.
Alerts still mean something
- 1Alerts ignored
- 2Alert fatigue
- 3Some tuning
- 4Tuned, actioned
- 5Tuned, few, trusted
At the low end: When the team ignores alerts, the system is shouting into a room that stopped listening, and the one real emergency will be ignored too. Cut the alert volume hard so the ones that remain get read. What good looks like: Few alerts, each trusted and actioned, is what a healthy operation sounds like. Keep pruning; every low-value alert you add quietly devalues the ones that matter.