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Criterion
Paper illustration of a four-column Kanban board with limited ongoing work, a visible blocker and a review loop.
Engineering
Kanban
A 5 Whys working surface connects an observable problem with evidenced causes, marked uncertainty and concrete countermeasures with ownership.
Operations
5 Whys
Paper illustration for Root Cause Analysis.
Operations
Root Cause Analysis
Purposedifferent
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.For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description.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.
Complexitydifferent
MediumLowMedium
Timedifferent
Ongoing15-30 min1-4 h
Participantsdifferent
2-122-63-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metricsRoot cause notes, CountermeasuresProblem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan
Tagsno overlap
FlowVisual managementDelivery
Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving
Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration for 8D Problem Solving.
Operations
8D Problem Solving
Paper illustration for Root Cause Tree Analysis
Operations
Root Cause Tree Analysis
Value Stream Mapping workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Delivery
Value Stream Mapping
A3 Problem-Solving workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Operations
A3 Problem Solving