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| Criterion |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 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. | 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. | 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 | Medium | Medium | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 1-4 h | 1-3 h | 30-60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 4-10 | 2-8 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause |