Using a Fishbone (or Ishikawa)

Diagram

The strength of the fish bone diagram is that it allows you to focus on specific cause categories, which may help
you to better focus your line of enquiry. In other words, this diagram is similar to a surgical strike, which provides
more precision. The table method is like the shotgun approach, in which we think of as many possible causes as
possible without a specific path.

Choose your Cause Categories

You can choose to focus your line of inquiry by choosing a set of cause categories: main topics which you will
base your why analysis on.
There are also a whole set of common cause categories, some of which are listed below:

3Ms and P Methods, Materials, Machinery, and People

4Ps Policies, Procedures, People and Plant

6Ms Machine, Method, Materials, Measurement, Man and Mother Nature (Environment)

8Ps Price, Promotion, People, Processes, Place / Plant, Policies, Procedures & Product (or Service)
(recommended for administration and service industry)

4Ss Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills (recommended for service industry)

Equipment, Process, People, Materials, Environment, and Management

When to Use
The fishbone diagram provides a visual representation of the various causes of a problem, and
serves as a good quality control tool, providing project managers with a graphical representation of
the cause and effect of a problem. As the adage goes a picture is worth more than a thousand
words. Project managers using the fishbone diagram obtains a holistic picture of all possible
causes arranged into potential categories. This allows them to brainstorm and apply creativity to
devise effective solutions, in a better way.

With the graphical illustration provided by fishbone diagrams, project managers can easily view the
dependencies and inter-relationships among various variables, and understand whether changes to
one variable would change another variable, whether changes in one variable will affect another
variable, and how such changes would alter the outcome. A bulleted list or any other form of
representation does not have such illustrative powers.
There are many ways of drawing a fishbone diagram, including many software applications and
plug-ins dedicated to this purpose. All such options work well, but the advantage of this MS-Word
template is its ready availability, simplicity, ease of use with a self-explanatory nature, and
resilience or ability to use in any system having MS-Word.

Cause and Effect Analysis

Identifying the Likely Causes of Problems
(Also known as Cause and Effect Diagrams, Fishbone Diagrams, Ishikawa Diagrams,
Herringbone Diagrams, and Fishikawa Diagrams.)

Find all possible problems.

When you have a serious problem, it's important to explore all of the things that could cause it, before you start to
think about a solution.
That way you can solve the problem completely, first time round, rather than just addressing part of it and having
the problem run on and on.
Cause and Effect Analysis gives you a useful way of doing this. This diagram-based technique, which
combines Brainstorming with a type of Mind Map, pushes you to consider all possible causes of a
problem, rather than just the ones that are most obvious.
We'll look at Cause and Effect Analysis in this article.

About the Tool

Cause and Effect Analysis was devised by professor Kaoru Ishikawa, a pioneer of quality management, in the
1960s. The technique was then published in his 1990 book, "Introduction to Quality Control."

The diagrams that you create with Cause and Effect Analysis are known as Ishikawa Diagrams or Fishbone
Diagrams (because a completed diagram can look like the skeleton of a fish).
Cause and Effect Analysis was originally developed as a quality control tool, but you can use the technique just
as well in other ways. For instance, you can use it to:

Discover the root cause of a problem.

Uncover bottlenecks in your processes.

Identify where and why a process isn't working.

How to Use the Tool

Follow these steps to solve a problem with Cause and Effect Analysis:

Step 1: Identify the Problem

First, write down the exact problem you face. Where appropriate, identify who is involved, what the problem is,
and when and where it occurs.
Then, write the problem in a box on the left-hand side of a large sheet of paper, and draw a line across the paper
horizontally from the box. This arrangement, looking like the head and spine of a fish, gives you space to develop
ideas.
Example:
In this simple example, a manager is having problems with an uncooperative branch office.
Figure 1 Cause and Effect Analysis Example Step 1
(Click image to view full size.)

Tip 1:
Some people prefer to write the problem on the right-hand side of the piece of paper, and develop
ideas in the space to the left. Use whichever approach you feel most comfortable with.
Tip 2:
It's important to define your problem correctly. CATWOE can help you do this this asks you to
look at the problem from the perspective of Customers, Actors in the process, the Transformation
process, the overall World view, the process Owner, and Environmental constraints.
By considering all of these, you can develop a comprehensive understanding of the problem.

Step 2: Work Out the Major Factors Involved

Next, identify the factors that may be part of the problem. These may be systems, equipment, materials, external
forces, people involved with the problem, and so on.
Try to draw out as many of these as possible. As a starting point, you can use models such as the McKinsey
7S Framework (which offers you Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared values, Skills, Style and Staff as
factors that you can consider) or the 4Ps of Marketing (which offers Product, Place, Price, and Promotion as
possible factors).
Brainstorm any other factors that may affect the situation.
Then draw a line off the "spine" of the diagram for each factor, and label each line.
Example:
The manager identifies the following factors, and adds these to his diagram:

Site.

Task.

People.

Equipment.

Control.

Figure 2 Cause and Effect Analysis Example Step 2

(Click image to view full size.)

Step 3: Identify Possible Causes

Now, for each of the factors you considered in step 2, brainstorm possible causes of the problem that may be
related to the factor.
Show these possible causes as shorter lines coming off the "bones" of the diagram. Where a cause is large or
complex, then it may be best to break it down into sub-causes. Show these as lines coming off each cause line.

Example:
For each of the factors he identified in step 2, the manager brainstorms possible causes of the problem, and
adds these to his diagram, as shown in figure 3.
Figure 3 Cause and Effect Analysis Example Step 3
(Click image to view full size.)

Step 4: Analyze Your Diagram

By this stage you should have a diagram showing all of the possible causes of the problem that you can think of.
Depending on the complexity and importance of the problem, you can now investigate the most likely causes
further. This may involve setting up investigations, carrying out surveys, and so on. These will be designed to test
which of these possible causes is actually contributing to the problem.
Example:
The manager has now finished his Cause and Effect Analysis. If he hadn't looked at the problem this way, he
might have dealt with it by assuming that people in the branch office were "being difficult."
Instead he thinks that the best approach is to arrange a meeting with the Branch Manager. This would allow him
to brief the manager fully on the new strategy, and talk through any problems that she may be experiencing.

Tip:
A useful way to use Cause and Effect Analysis with a team is to write all of the possible causes of
the problem down on sticky notes. You can then group similar ones together on the diagram.
This approach is sometimes called CEDAC (Cause and Effect Diagram with Additional Cards) and
was developed by Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, a Japanese expert on continuous improvement.

Key Points
Professor Kaoru Ishikawa created Cause & Effect Analysis in the 1960s. The technique uses a
diagram-based approach for thinking through all of the possible causes of a problem. This helps
you to carry out a thorough analysis of the situation.
There are four steps to using Cause and Effect Analysis.
1.

Identify the problem.

2.

Work out the major factors involved.

3.

Identify possible causes.

4.

Analyze your diagram.

Try using Cause and Effect Analysis you'll find that they are particularly useful when you're trying
to solve complicated problems.

Cause and Effect Chart for

Airline Departure Delays (Fishbone Diagram)

Front-Stage
Facilitie
Frontsta
Procedures
Procedu
Personnel
s,
ge
re
Delayed checkGate
agents
Aircraft Personn
Equipm
Arrive late
in procedure
cannot
late
to
el
Mechanical
Acceptance of
Oversizedent gate
process
fast
Customers
Custom
Late/unavailable
Failures
bags
late passengers
enough
ers
airline crew
Delaye
Late pushback
d
Late
Late
Departu
Poor
food
cabin
Other
res
Weathe
Late baggage
service
announcement
of
cleaners Weight
Causes
and

r
Air
traffic

Late fuel

Materials,
Supplies

Material
s,
Supplie
s

Backsta
ge
Personn
el

departures
balance sheet
Informatlate

ion