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| Criterion | ![]() Delivery Value Stream Mapping | ![]() Engineering Kanban | ![]() Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis | ![]() Operations Fishbone Diagram |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 work sits in too many parallel streams, throughput suffers and no one sees the bottlenecks. Kanban makes the flow of work visible and limits overload so a system becomes calmer and more predictable. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 h | Ongoing | 2-6 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 2-12 | 3-10 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | FlowVisual managementDelivery | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | Root causeQualityOperations |



