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| Criterion |  Operations After-Action Review |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |  Engineering Kanban |  Operations Process Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | After missions or project phases with unclear outcomes, the method makes visible what actually happened and what can be learned from it. It separates course, effect, and causes so experience turns into solid improvement. | For a flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput. | When work sits in too many parallel streams, throughput suffers and no one sees the bottlenecks. Kanban makes the flow of work visible and limits overload so a system becomes calmer and more predictable. | With a confusing workflow that has many handoffs, the method makes the actual process visible. It shows where work is passed on, delayed, or duplicated, so improvement targets the right spots. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-3 h | Ongoing | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-8 | 2-12 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Process Map, Handoff List, Improvement Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | LearningOperationsImprovement | FlowMeasurementConstraints | FlowVisual managementDelivery | ProcessOperationsImprovement |