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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  Systems Thinking Causal Loop Diagram |  Operations Bottleneck 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. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | A Causal Loop Diagram makes feedback, reinforcement, and balance in a system legible. It uncovers side effects and self-reinforcement that stay hidden in linear explanations. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 2-6 h | 1-3 h | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 3-8 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Causal Loop Diagram, Feedback Notes, Leverage Points | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | FeedbackSystems thinkingCausalityDynamics | FlowMeasurementConstraints |