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| Criterion |  Operations Visual Management |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 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 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 | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 1-3 h | 30-60 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-20 | 4-10 | 2-8 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Visual Board, Status Indicators, Exception Cues | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | SignalsOperationsVisual management | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | Root causeQualityOperations | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |