1. QUALITY TOOLS Affinity Diagram

2. Why? To organize “chaotic” collections of ideas, e.g. from a brainstorming or 6-3-5 session. Serves to unify group opinion. Helps to clarify ideas.

3. The “recipe” 1. Rapidly group ideas that seem to belong together. 2. It isn't important to define why they belong together. 3. Clarify any ideas in question. 4. Copy an idea into in more than one affinity set if appropriate. 5. Look for small sets. Should they belong in a larger group? 6. Do large sets need to be broken down more precisely? 7. When most of the ideas have been sorted, you can start to enter titles for each affinity set.