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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  Operations After-Action Review |  Operations Theory of Constraints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For a system that does not get faster despite effort, the method directs attention to the bottleneck. It concentrates improvement on the point that actually limits throughput. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | High |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 1-3 h | 20-45 min | 2-4 h Analyse, laufend |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 4-10 | 3-12 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | Constraint Map, Improvement Plan, Flow Metrics |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | LearningOperationsImprovement | OperationsConstraintsFlowImprovement |