A cause-effect diagram, also called an Ishikawa or fishbone diagram, is a graphic tool used to find and analyse the root causes of a problem or effect. It is named after Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese quality control expert who developed the technique.
The diagram is structured like a fishbone, with the “effect” or problem at the head of the fish and the “causes” as the bones of the fish. Most of the time, the causes are put into groups that have something to do with the problem, like people, process, equipment, or environment.
To make a cause-and-effect diagram, a group of people come up with all the possible causes of the problem and put them into the fishbone diagram’s branches. Each branch can then be further expanded into sub-branches to identify more specific causes.
The cause-and-effect diagram is helpful because it lets teams find and visualise the different things that might be causing a problem and figure out how they are related to each other. It can also help teams decide which causes to tackle first based on how much they could affect the problem.
Once the causes have been found, the team can use other tools and methods for solving problems to come up with and use solutions to fix them. The cause-effect diagram can also be used to monitor progress and to evaluate the effectiveness of the solutions over time.
Usage
It is used in quality management
