ISHIKAWA
FISHBONE DIAGRAM
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Slide 1
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About Kaoru Ishikawa
The career of Kaoru Ishikawa is some ways parallels the economic
history of contemporary Japan.
Ishikawa, like Japan as a whole, learned the basics of statistical
quality control developed by Americans.
Ishikawa’s most important contribution has been his key role in the
development of a specifically Japanese quality strategy.
Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa
The bottom-up approach is best exemplified by the Quality Circle.
One of Ishikawa's early achievements contributed to the success of Quality
Circles.
The cause-and-effect diagram—often called the Ishikawa diagram and perhaps the
achievement for which he is best known—has provided a powerful tool that can
easily be used by non-specialists to analyze and solve problems.
Although the Quality Circle was developed in Japan, it spread to more than 50
countries, a development Ishikawa never foresaw.
The wide acceptance of many of Ishikawa’s ideas – and the numerous honors he has
received from around the world show how successful his revolution has been.
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Slide 2
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Quality Circle
What is a Quality Circle?
A quick answer is, “A Quality Circle is a way of capturing the creative and innovative
power that lies within the work force.”
A more formal definition is: A group of workers from the same area who usually
meet for an hour each week to discuss their problems, investigate causes,
recommend solutions, and take corrective actions when authority is in their
purview.
Kaoru Ishikawa led the concept and use of Quality Circles. The intended
purpose of a Quality Circle is to:
Support the improvement and development of the company
Respect human relations in the workplace and increase job
satisfaction
Draw out employee potential
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Slide 3
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CAUSE & EFFECT DIAGRAM
Causes Effect
Major Cause Major Cause
Supporting Ideas
Issue
Major Cause Major Cause
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Slide 4
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ABOUT C&E DIAGRAM
The Cause & Effect Diagram or Fishbone Diagram is also called the Ishikawa
Diagram, named after Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa who first introduced this tool.
This diagram represents the relationship between some “effect” and all the
possible “causes.”
The effect or problem is stated on the right side of the chart and the major
influences or causes are listed on the left.
Fishbone Diagrams are drawn to clearly illustrate the various causes affecting
a process by sorting out and relating the causes.
For every effect, there are likely to be several major categories of causes.
The major causes might be summarized under categories referred to
as “4 Ms” and “4 Ps”.
Procedures,
Manpower
People,
Methods,
or
Place
Materials,
Machinery, Policies.
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Slide 5
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However, you may use any major category that emerges or helps people think
creatively.
A well-detailed Cause & Effect Diagram will take on the shape of a fish skeleton
and hence the alternate name, Fishbone Diagram.
From this well-defined list of possible causes, the most likely are identified
and selected for further analysis.
When examining each cause, look for things that have changed, deviations from
the norm or patterns.
For each cause, ask, Why does it happen?” and list the responses as branches off
the major causes.
Look for causes that appear repeatedly.
Reach a team consensus.
Gather data to determine the relative frequencies of the different causes.
Remember you don’t have to swallow the whole fish! After fleshing out each
bone on the diagram, you only have to “bite-off” what you can chew.
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Slide 6
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Things to remember about the
Fishbone Diagram
• There should be no judgments made about
ideas offered from employees.
• Everyone will have an opinion about what
causes a problem. Organizing these ideas
improves the chance that good ideas can be
tested.
• Label the “main bones” of the diagram in ways
that are best for your problem or event.
• Use the Fishbone Diagram to help solve
problems as well as making plans.
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Slide 7
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Where can you use the Fishbone
Diagram in the PDSA Cycle?
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Slide 8
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ADVANTAGES
This tool is better than nothing, and serves as a useful
tool for getting individual opinions onto a sheet of paper
so that everyone involved can talk about them and
suggest additional possible causes.
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Slide 9
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DISADVANTAGES
This is an opinion-based tool, and its design limits the
user's ability to visually define multiple levels of ‘why'
answers unless the paper that is being used is really
large.
Worse yet, opinion (voting of some form) is normally used
to select the most likely causes from those listed on the
diagram.
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Slide 10
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R ID S S
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Slide 12
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