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| Criterion |  Innovation Lotus Blossom |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Innovation Brainstorming |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a central question feels too large, the method breaks it into neighboring topic fields with their own depth of ideation. It holds structure and openness at the same time, so adjacent perspectives don't get lost. This grows an idea space out of a core problem. | 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 team faces an open question with many obvious directions, the method first creates breadth instead of premature commitment. It separates idea flow from evaluation and makes lines of thought visible, creating a pool for selection and further development. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 30-60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 2-8 | 4-12 | 3-10 |
Formatsame | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Lotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Idea pool, Theme clusters, Shortlist | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions |
Tagsno overlap | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop | Root causeQualityOperations | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityWorkshopDivergence | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause |