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| Criterion |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Root Cause Tree Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h | 1-4 h | 30-90 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 3-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | FlowMeasurementConstraints | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality |