Cause and effect analysis

Fishbone Analysis for Quality Improvement. Helpful for Service Sector

1. Cause and Effect Analysis Amit Shrivastava Hyderabad, India.

2. History 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 we create, are known as Ishikawa Diagrams or Fishbone Diagrams

3. This is used to: Discover the root cause of a problem Uncover bottlenecks in the process Identify where and why the process isn't working

4. Key Points The technique uses a diagram-based approach for thinking through all of the possible causes of a problem. This helps to carry out a thorough analysis of the situation.

5. Steps to use this Tool Identify the Problems Work out the Major Factors Involved Identify Possible Causes Analyze the Diagram

6. Step 1: Identify the Problem Write down the exact problem we face, i.e., the “EFFECT" to be diagrammed Draw a box around the effect with an arrow heading to it EFFECT

7. Step 2: Work Out the Major Factors Involved Identify the factors that may be the part of the problem Write down all the factors on the diagram Instructions Duplicates Commercials Listening

8. Step 3: Identify Possible Causes For each of the factors, brainstorm possible causes of the problem that may be related to the factor Show these possible causes coming off the "bones" of the diagram

9. Step 4: Analyze the Diagram We have a diagram, that shows all of the possible causes of the problem that we can think of We can now investigate the most likely causes further