Fishbone Diagram

Fishbone Diagram is also called as Ishikawa Diagram or Cause-and-effect diagram.

Fishbone Diagram is used for Root Cause Analysis and Brainstorming sessions.

This Diagram is created by Kaoru Ishikawa to identify the Root Cause of a particular problem.

Fishbone diagram is used in typical categories like:

1. Manufacturing
2. Product Marketing
3. Service industries
4. Sales Processes

Fishbone diagram is used to identify the problem causing factor which holds the smooth functioning of a process or an event. This diagram is used to identify the “cause” and the effect that cause has on the functioning, so that is why it is called as Cause-and-effect diagram. This diagram is used to identify all of the basic causes in the past events or all of the possible outcomes in a future approach. The key areas which occur repeatedly in either type of analysis are:

1. Manpower
2. Processes
3. Machines
4. Materials
5. Environment
6. Product
7. Maintenance
8. Performance

How to create a Fishbone Diagram:

• Create a head, which lists the problem or issue to be studied.
• Create a backbone for the fish.
• Identify the “causes” that contribute to the problem. Connect the causes with arrows to the spine.
• Brainstorm around each “cause” to document those things that contributed to the cause.
• Continue breaking down each cause until the root causes have been identified.

Once the Fishbone is completed, we are well on the way to understanding the root causes of the problem.