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| Criterion |  Operations Visual Management |  Engineering Kanban |  Operations Gemba Walk |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With high tempo and many parallel topics, the method makes status, deviations, and priorities visible at a glance. It reduces search effort and prevents what matters from getting lost in daily work. | 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. | When there is uncertainty about the real course of a process, the method brings observation to the place where work happens. It combines perception, follow-up questions, and process knowledge so decisions rest on actual workflows instead of assumptions. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | Ongoing | 30-120 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-20 | 2-12 | 2-6 | 4-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Visual Board, Status Indicators, Exception Cues | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Observation Notes, Improvement Ideas | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list |
Tagsno overlap | SignalsOperationsVisual management | FlowVisual managementDelivery | LeanObservationProcessOperations | LeanFlowWasteDelivery |