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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  Operations After-Action Review |  Operations Gemba Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 delivery work dissolves into wait times, handoffs, and hidden effort, Value Stream Mapping makes the actual flow visible. The method exposes bottlenecks, idle time, and feedback loops so lead time and improvement levers become tangible. | After missions or project phases with unclear outcomes, the method makes visible what actually happened and what can be learned from it. It separates course, effect, and causes so experience turns into solid improvement. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 1-3 h | 20-45 min | 30-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 4-10 | 3-12 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Observation Notes, Improvement Ideas |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | LearningOperationsImprovement | LeanObservationProcessOperations |