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| Criterion | ![]() Engineering Kanban | ![]() Operations Kepner-Tregoe | ![]() 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. | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | 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 | High | High | Low |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 2-8 h | 2-6 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 2-8 | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | Root causeQualityOperations |



