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| Criterion |  Engineering Kanban |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Operations Family Tree Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | For a series of incidents with a similar pattern, the method arranges individual events as branches of a common origin. It makes visible which conditions keep recurring. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 1-3 h | 2-6 h | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-12 | 4-10 | 3-10 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Family Tree Diagram, Pattern Notes, Systemic Measures |
Tagsno overlap | FlowVisual managementDelivery | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | Root causePatternsIncidentSystemic |