Configure before you customize

Companies customize for understandable reasons. The last system was bent around them. The new one feels generic. A respected operator says, 'We have always done it this way,' and the program, wishing to be a good guest, writes it down as a requirement.

The question is not whether you are special. The question is whether this difference earns a permanent cost. Configuration is reversible. An extension lives through every upgrade, every new hire, and every future consultant who did not sit in the workshop. Some differences earn that. Most are habit.

We ask for a disposition on every gap: adopt the standard, configure, or exception. Exceptions need an owner, a maintenance note, and a reason that would still make sense to a new CFO. 'The plant prefers it' is not yet a reason. 'The plant's yield calculation is the commercial promise to the customer' might be.

A short exception log is a sign of a serious program. A long one is a sign that selection, or courage, happened too late.