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| Criterion |  Operations Waste Analysis |  Systems Thinking Evaporating Cloud |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  Engineering Kanban |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For a process that keeps people busy but creates little value, the method exposes waste. It directs attention to unnecessary movement, waiting times, rework, and overdelivery. | The method makes visible why two seemingly incompatible demands arise and which assumption must be tested to resolve the conflict. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 60-120 min | 1-3 h | Ongoing |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 4-10 | 2-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Waste Map, Prioritized Waste, Improvement Backlog | Conflict Cloud, Assumption List, Breakthrough Ideas, Next Experiments | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics |
Tagsno overlap | WasteLeanProcess improvement | Theory of ConstraintsAssumptionsSystems thinking | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | FlowVisual managementDelivery |