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| Criterion |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Innovation Lotus Blossom |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |  Innovation Brainstorming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 a central question feels too large, the method breaks it into neighboring topic fields with their own depth of ideation. It holds structure and openness at the same time, so adjacent perspectives don't get lost. This grows an idea space out of a core problem. | For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. | When a team faces an open question with many obvious directions, the method first creates breadth instead of premature commitment. It separates idea flow from evaluation and makes lines of thought visible, creating a pool for selection and further development. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | 45-90 min | 2-6 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-10 | 3-10 | 4-12 |
Formatsame | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Lotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Idea pool, Theme clusters, Shortlist |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeQualityOperations | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityWorkshopDivergence |