8.5. CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAMS
Process improvement involves taking action on the causes of variation. With most practical applications, the number of possible causes for any given problem can be huge. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa developed a simple method of graphically displaying the causes of any given quality problem. His method is called by several names, the Ishikawa diagram, the fishbone diagram, and the cause and effect diagram.
Cause and effect diagrams are tools that are used to organize and graphically display all of the knowledge a group has relating to a particular problem. Usually, the steps are:
Develop a flow chart of the area to be improved.
Define the problem to be solved.
Brainstorm to find all possible causes of the problem.
Organize the ...
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