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| Criterion |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Innovation Brainstorming |  Innovation Round Robin Brainstorming |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | 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. | With unevenly distributed speaking time, the method brings every person into the contribution one after another. It prevents early voices from setting the direction while still producing a shared idea space. This makes participation plannable and the team's diversity visible. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-4 h | 30-60 min | 20-45 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 4-12 | 4-10 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Idea pool, Theme clusters, Shortlist | Idea List, Cluster, Shortlist | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityWorkshopDivergence | BrainstormingIdeationFacilitationInclusionCreativity | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |