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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Operations Gemba Walk |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When there is uncertainty about the real course of a process, the method brings observation to the place where work happens. It combines perception, follow-up questions, and process knowledge so decisions rest on actual workflows instead of assumptions. | 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 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | High | Low |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 30-120 min | 2-6 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 2-6 | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Observation Notes, Improvement Ideas | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | LeanObservationProcessOperations | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | Root causeQualityOperations |