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| Criterion |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. | 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. | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | 1-2 h | 1-4 h | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 4-12 | 3-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeQualityOperations | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |