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| Criterion |  Operations Process Mapping |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |  Decision Making Decision Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With a confusing workflow that has many handoffs, the method makes the actual process visible. It shows where work is passed on, delayed, or duplicated, so improvement targets the right spots. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | 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. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h | 30-90 min | 1-3 h | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 2-8 | 3-8 | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Process Map, Handoff List, Improvement Backlog | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List |
Tagsno overlap | ProcessOperationsImprovement | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | FlowMeasurementConstraints | DecisionTreeOptions |