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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Operations Gemba Walk |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations A3 Problem Solving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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 complex deviation with several people involved, the method bundles problem, analysis, and decision onto one page. It creates a shared working space where causes, countermeasures, and follow-up fit together. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 30-120 min | 1-4 h | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 2-6 | 3-8 | 2-5 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Observation Notes, Improvement Ideas | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | A3 Report, Action Plan, Root Cause Analysis |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | LeanObservationProcessOperations | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | LeanProblem solvingCoachingOperations |