Alert lists fail when every line item appears urgent. Manufacturing buyers need a short queue ordered by production impact, not by alphabetical supplier name.
Define impact with the people who run the schedule: which items stop a line within forty-eight hours, which can wait for the next ocean shipment, and which have a known alternate. Encode that ranking into the dashboard filter so the top of the list matches the morning stand-up.
Pair each shortage row with the open purchase order, promised date, and last supplier confirmation note if your files capture it. Buyers should leave the screen with a phone call target, not another chart to interpret.
Limit daily alerts to a volume one person can clear. If the queue regularly exceeds twenty items, the threshold is wrong or the plant needs a deeper inventory review before more visuals are drawn.