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| Criterion |  Operations Waste Analysis |  Engineering Kanban |  Operations Theory of Constraints |  Operations Bottleneck Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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 system that does not get faster despite effort, the method directs attention to the bottleneck. It concentrates improvement on the point that actually limits throughput. | For a flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | Ongoing | 2-4 h Analyse, laufend | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-12 | 3-12 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Waste Map, Prioritized Waste, Improvement Backlog | Kanban board, WIP policies, Flow metrics | Constraint Map, Improvement Plan, Flow Metrics | Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures |
Tagsno overlap | WasteLeanProcess improvement | FlowVisual managementDelivery | OperationsConstraintsFlowImprovement | FlowMeasurementConstraints |