Ultimate Fishbone Diagram Tutorial
Fishbone diagrams, are also known as ishikawa diagrams, cause and effect diagrams, herringbone diagrams and ishikawa diagrams.
Fishbone diagram identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem. It can be used to structure a brainstorming session and and sorts ideas into useful categories. Fishbone diagram allows people to graphically organize the causes of an event.
Simple Introduction to Fishbone Diagram
A fishbone diagram is a common tool used for a cause and effect analysis, in which you try to identify possible causes for a certain problem or event. The appearance of fishbone diagram resembles a skeleton of a fishbone which is the reason why it gets its name.
Fishbone diagrams help teams categorize the many potential causes of problems or issues in an orderly way. It also helps in determining root causes. Essentially, this cause and effect analysis breaks the "whole" into "parts." Fishbone diagrams are helpful in clearly breaking down the relationship between a topic and all of the possible factors that are related to it. When used as a cause-and-effect diagram, a fishbone diagram can represent the amount of influence of each cause.
Brief History of Fishbone Diagram
The fishbone, or cause & effect diagram, was first used by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a pioneer of quality management, of the University of Tokyo in 1943 - hence its frequent reference as a "ishikawa diagram". Fishbone diagram was devised by professor Kaoru Ishikawa in the 1960s. The technique was then published in his 1990 book, "Introduction to Quality Control." The fishbone diagram is used to identify all of the contributing root causes likely to be causing a problem.
People by nature often like to get right to determining what to do about a problem, fishbone diagram can help bring out a more thorough exploration of the issues behind the problem which will lead to a more robust solution.
A Fishbone Diagram Example
The picture below is a marketing strategy fishbone diagram. As you can see that this fishbone diagram vividly shows various aspects of a complete marketing strategy. For products, we should pay attention to its quality, design, brand and technology. For a production process, we should care about its response time, service delivery and complaint. Moreover, for promotion, we should notice its special offer, advertising, recommendations and gifts.
Steps to Make a Fishbone Diagram
Although it is convenient to use fishbone diagram for analyzing cause and effect, it is kind of difficult to draw a fishbone diagram by hand. No worries, you can quickly and correctly draw a fishbone diagram with the help of fishbone diagram maker. Now let me show you how to make a fishbone diagram by using fishbone diagram maker.
1. On the File menu, point to New, point to Business Diagram, and double click Fishbone template. A new drawing page will open.
2. Go to the library pane on the left of the canvas. From Cause and Effect Diagram, drag fishbone shape onto the canvas.
3. Drag a Category 1 or Category 2 shape or rectangle category shape, etc., onto the drawing page and position it so that the arrowhead is touching the fishbone shape.
- To label a category, double click the "Text" and then type your words.
- To delete a category, select the shape and then press the DELETE key.
4. To represent major causes contributing to the categories, drag Primary cause shapes onto the drawing page and snap the arrowheads to category lines.
5. To represent secondary causes contributing to primary causes, drag Secondary cause shapes onto the drawing page and snap the arrowheads to primary cause lines.
Print: When a fishbone diagram is done, it's easy to print and share with more people. On the file menu, point to Print to set for print options. You can change settings with fewer clicks and see the print preview in real time.
Export: Edraw offers support for exporting your diagram to various formats, including Microsoft Office, PDF, and many other graphic formats. On the File menu, point to Export & Send for Export options.
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How to Make a Fishbone Diagram