Fish Bone

Fish Bone Diagram Also Called: Cause-and-Effect Diagram, Ishikawa Diagram

Description:

Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem. It can be used to structure a brainstorming session. It immediately sorts ideas into useful categories.

When to Use

• When you try to know possible causes for a problem.

• Especially when a team’s thinking tends to fall into block way.

Procedure:

1- Agree on the problem (effect). Write it at the center right ( Fish Head ) of the flipchart or whiteboard . Draw a box around it and draw a horizontal arrow running to it.

.....................................> Problem

2- Brainstorm the major categories of causes of the problem (5M ).

• Methods

• Machines (equipment)

• Manpower (People)

• Materials

• Measurement

• Environment

3- Write the categories of causes as branches from the main arrow.

4- Brainstorm all the possible causes of the problem. Ask: “Why does this happen?” As each idea is given, write it as a branch from the appropriate category(5M ).

Causes can be written in several places if they relate to several categories.

5- Again ask “why does this happen?” about each ( CAUSE from step 4 ). Write sub-causes branching off the causes. Continue to ask “Why?” and generate deeper levels of causes. Layers of branches indicate causal relationships.

N.B.: When the group runs out of ideas, focus attention to places on the chart where ideas are few.

for more information about Fish Bone you can join business process management tools free E-course



Add Our RSS Feed

XML RSS
What is this?
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Add to Google


Return to Top


| Copyright | Disclaimer| Privacy Policy| HomePage|


Copyright© 2010 Bexcellence.org