Short answer: An exception becomes expensive when the team finds it after a customer, owner, or technician has already felt its impact.
Track repeat exceptions by source, time to notice, rework, and final owner. That pattern shows whether the first fix is better visibility, a vendor standard, or a clear escalation rule.
Run the Operational Leak Diagnosis
Content note: This field note is currently a short answer and one supporting paragraph. It should be expanded by the human author to approximately 400-800 words of real operational detail before being positioned as defensible expertise content.