Cause and Effect Diagrams By: Michael Thomas

Overview What Are Cause & Effect Diagrams? How Can They Be Used in Your Organization? How Do They work? Real World Example Try It Yourself Summary Overview of the contents of the presentation

What Are Cause & Effect Diagrams? Problem solving tool Focuses on potential causes of the problem Created by Kaoru Ishikawa Also known as Ishikawa or Fishbone diagrams The Cause & Effect Diagram is a tool created by Kaoru Ishikawa which is used to help employees solve problems. It accomplishes this by focusing on the potential causes of the problem instead of just the problem itself.

How Can They Be Used in Your Organization? Incredibly versatile – can be used in any orgainization Helpful in many situations Product/process problems Departmental conflicts Team conflicts Employee/Interpersonal conflicts Cause & Effect diagrams can be used in numerous situations in all companies. These can range from product or process problems to departmental conflicts. They are also useful for identifying problems between members of a team working on a project.

How Do They Work? Slide 1 of 8 There are 5 steps to designing a Cause & Effect Diagram Step 1: Identify the main problem Write problem in box at right-hand side of page There are five steps to designing a Cause & Effect Diagram. The first is to identify what the main problem is and then to write it in a box at the right-hand side of the page you are working with.

How Do They Work? Slide 2 of 8 Example of Step 1

How Do They Work? Slide 3 of 8 Step 2: Draw a long arrow across page pointing at box Draw smaller arrows pointing at main arrow Draw a box at the end of each arrow Identify 4 major causes of problem Write the major causes in the boxes Draw a long arrow across the page pointing at the box containing the problem. Four arrows should then be drawn, pointing the the main arrow. A box should be drawn at the end of each of these arrows and four major causes of the problem should be identified and written inside each box.

How Do They Work? Slide 4 of 9 It may not be easy to develop 4 main causes In this case 4 generic causes can be used Machines Materials Methods People For some problems it may be difficult to come up with four major causes. If this is the case, it is common to use machines, materials, methods, and people as the major causes. Employees should then be able to attribute causes to these four categories.

How Do They Work? Slide 5 of 9 Example of Step 2

How Do They Work? Slide 6 of 9 Step 3: Consider other causes, including possible causes of the 4 major causes stated in Step 2 Add these as branches off of the 4 arrows Repeat until all causes are discovered Employees should continue to think of more causes of the problem, this should include considering aspects as well as possible causes of the four major causes addressed in step 2. These findings should branch off of the appropriate arrows. This step is repeated until all possible causes are discovered.

How Do They Work? Slide 7 of 9 Example of Step 3

How Do They Work? Slide 8 of 9 Step 4: Rank the top causes by priority Employees have 10 points They can assign the points to causes they feel are important Total the points for each cause Rank the causes by their priority After the diagram is finished there will be many causes identified. These causes will need to be prioritized. The easiest way to accomplish this is to tell employees they can allot 10 points to the causes they feel are important. They may allot 1 point to 10 causes, 10 points to 1 cause, or spread the points out. Once this is finished, total the points and rank the causes by their priority.

How Do They Work? Slide 9 of 9 Step 5: Choose the top ranked causes Not more than 5 Analyze the causes Develop a plan of action After ranking the causes choose the top few (generally not more than 5) causes on which to begin focusing. Analyze the causes and determine what needs to be done. The final step is to develop a plan of action and solve the problem.

Real World Example Slide 1 of 5 Problem: company network is down A company realizes its network is down, but is unsure why. The IT manager and MIS people get together and try to solve the problem using a Cause & Effect Diagram. They draw the problem box and write “Network is down” inside.

Real World Example Slide 2 of 5 4 major causes: Hardware problem Software problem Employee problem Outside problem They come up with 4 major causes: hardware, software, employee, or outside problem (something out of their control).

Real World Example Slide 3 of 5 The four major causes are branched off of the main arrow.

Real World Example Slide 4 of 5 Sub-causes Hardware Server crash, broken hub Software Virus, missing driver Employee Inexperience with system Outside Power outage, hacker After some brainstorming, the MIS people came up with some possible sub-causes: Hardware: The server may have crashed, shutting down the entire network. One of the hubs connecting the other computers to the host may be broken or malfunctioning. Software: A virus may have entered the system either through a disk or download. One of the drivers for the network system may have become corrupt Employee: An employee’s inexperience with the system may have caused a network failure. Outside: The server may have lost power due to an outage. A hacker may have broken into the system and violated the system’s integrity.

Real World Example Slide 5 of 5 After filling out the entire diagram, the IT manager and the MIS people can decide the best way to go about fixing the problem as quickly as possible.

Try It Yourself Slide 1 of 2 Problem: Department’s sales figures declining the past 3 months Groups of 3-5 people Identify 4 possible major causes Fill in the Cause & Effect Diagram Rank top causes Suggest a possible plan of action Imagine you are a manager at a retail store and you discover that your department’s sales figures have been declining the past three months. Get in groups of three to five people and construct a Cause & Effect diagram, identify the four major causes, vote on and rank the top causes, and then finally suggest a possible plan of action for the manager.

Try It Yourself Slide 2 of 2 What were your 4 main causes? What were your top ranked causes? What was your suggested plan of action? Answers may vary. Here is one possibility: Major Cause 1: Employees sub-causes: lack of motivation, unsatisfied with job/rewards Major Cause 2: Customers sub-causes: not buying, “just looking”, not coming to the store Major Cause 3: Economy sub-causes: people don’t have much money to spend Major Cause 4: Time of year sub-causes: is it right after Christmas?, are people on vacation? Top ranked causes: Employees not motivated, Customers not coming into store Plan of action: Manager should talk to his employees either individually or all together and determine why they are not motivated. Ask if they are happy with job/position, compensation, etc. Ask them why they think the sales figures have been down and try to see it from their perspective. Talk to the customers that do come into the store and ask them what brought them in. Discover their view on the company’s advertising campaign and inform the store manager or others of the responses given. The lack of customers may be due to a lack of sales fliers, lack of knowledge that the store exists, etc.

Summary Cause & Effect Diagrams Incredibly useful tools Wide variety of situations Easy to use As you can see, Cause and Effect diagrams are incredibly useful tools for any business. They can be implemented in a wide variety of situations and are very easy to use.

Bibliography Donndelinger, Deborah. Use the cause-and-effect diagram to manage conflict. Quality Progress. v29 n6. Jun 1996. p.136 Foster, S. Thomas. Managing Quality: an integrative approach. Prentice Hall, NJ. p. 286-287