Many operations teams already have procedures. The problem
is that people cannot find the current one
when work is moving. Supervisors answer the same
questions, handoffs vary by shift, and an old
document can look as authoritative as the approved
version. The opportunity is a governed navigator that
makes current process knowledge usable without pretending to
run the operation.
Ask what dispatch should do for a late
delivery exception. The navigator returns a concise checklist:
confirm shipment status, notify support when the customer
window is at risk, document the cause and
next update, and escalate repeat or high-value failures.
It names the approved SOP, the owner, the
review date, and the human escalation path.
A damaged-shipment request produces a different approved checklist.
The user is told what evidence to capture,
where to isolate the goods, and how to
assemble the claim packet. The agent helps coordinate
a repeatable process, but Customer Operations still owns
exceptions and final decisions.
Hazardous-materials guidance demonstrates the most important behavior: stopping.
A source exists, but its review date is
stale. The navigator refuses to treat it as
current, routes the request to Safety and Compliance,
and records a refresh issue. A polished checklist
from obsolete safety guidance would be more dangerous
than no answer.
When a user asks the navigator to approve
a customer credit, the system switches from lookup
to escalation. It captures the context and routes
the request, but it cannot approve credits, refunds,
safety overrides, or policy exceptions. That boundary lets
teams automate preparation without quietly transferring decision authority
to a chatbot.
The evaluation set covers expected checklists, a stale
source, approval attempts, missing procedures, safety overrides, and
ownership questions. This synthetic prototype evidence shows the
intended behavior pattern. A client pilot would replace
the sample SOPs with controlled company sources and
add real review outcomes.
The launch model stays deliberately narrow: a named
operations sponsor, one source owner, a small pilot
audience, weekly issue review, and lookup-only scope. The
interface could sit in web, Teams, or Slack,
while logs provide the evidence needed to improve
the system safely.
For an operations leader, the value is fewer
supervisor interruptions, more consistent handoffs, faster onboarding, and
clearer ownership when the normal process does not
apply. The navigator does not make operational decisions.
It makes approved knowledge easier to use and
exceptions harder to mishandle.
If one procedure creates repeated questions or inconsistent
handoffs, start with a one-week, three-thousand-five-hundred-dollar Operations Knowledge
Mini-Audit. We inspect the current sources, ownership, refresh
dates, exception boundaries, and pilot audience, then return
a fixed-scope recommendation. Bring one painful SOP workflow.
We will determine what is ready and what
needs cleanup first.