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| Criterion |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2-8 h | 1-3 h | 30-60 min | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-8 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | FlowMeasurementConstraints | Root causeQualityOperations | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |