How can a fish help solve a process problem?

How to Draw a Fishbone Diagram

The “Fishbone Diagram” is a simple tool used for potentially understanding the root cause of a problem. It resembles a fish’s skeleton with the head left untouched. It is also called the “Cause and Effect Diagram.”

The head of the fish represents the “Effect” (or the Problem which we are trying to find the root cause). The bones coming off the main back bone are high level “Causes” that branch off to sub-causes and potentially to root causes.

• Create the head of the fishbone diagram which lists the problem or issue to be investigated. Be specific about how and when the problem occurs.
• Create a backbone for the fish (straight line which leads to the head).

Now we draw the main bones that come off of the back bone. There are two different ways we can categorize these bones:

These bones could be the main causes of the effect (or problem) which we can drill down further to discover root causes, or we can use generic categorizations (like the ones below)

• Methods (for example; SOP’s, work instructions, OJT)
• Machines (or equipment, databases, IT assets)
• People (labor or manpower)
• Materials (actual materials or information)
• Measurement (for example: KPI’s, exception reports, production expectancies)
• Environment (for example: noise, temperature, culture)

From the main bones we know to dig deeper into the potential contributing causes.

We keep asking “Why do the contributing causes happen?” to dig deeper in the potential root causes.

It is very important that the potential root causes are ACTIONABLE ITEMS!

Actionable items are problems that we can implement a tangible fix. For example, one of the root causes to the effect of “Employees are an average of 7 minutes late to work over a 30 day period” is that the metric of “on-time” has not defined in employee handbook.The fix to this is tangible (to define “on time” and subsequently to measure timeliness).

What did you think? Did this article help you and your team to develop an effective Fishbone Diagram? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

About the Author, Kevin Clay, President & CEO of Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.

Kevin Clay is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Lean Master Practitioner. Kevin brings over 20 years of operational experience into the classroom. He has a wide range of Lean and Six Sigma project experience in industries such as manufacturing, food processing, residential and commercial construction, insurance, banking, healthcare, etc.

Kevin has taught Public Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Training courses all over the world. Some of the locations he currently teaches are: Albuquerque, New Mexico | Anchorage, Alaska | Atlanta, Georgia | Austin, Texas | Boston, Massachusetts | Calgary, Canada | Charlotte, North Carolina | Chicago, Illinois | Cincinnati, Ohio | Cleveland, Ohio | Columbus, Ohio | Dallas, Texas | Denver, Colorado | Detroit, Michigan | Dubai, UAE | El Paso, Texas | Fort Smith, Arkansas | Honolulu, Hawaii | Houston, Texas | Indianapolis, Indiana | Jacksonville, Florida | Kansas City, Missouri | Las Vegas, Nevada | London, England | Los Angeles, California | Louisville, Kentucky | Memphis, Tennessee | Mexico City, Mexico | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Montreal, Canada | Nashville, Tennessee | New Orleans, Louisiana | New York City, New York | Northwest Arkansas | Orlando, Florida | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Phoenix, Arizona | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Portland, Oregon | Raleigh, North Carolina | Salt Lake City, Utah | San Diego, California | Seattle, Washington | St. Louis, Missouri | Tampa, Florida | Toronto, Canada | Vancouver, Canada | Washington, DC

Kevin also works with many organizations onsite at their facilities to provide Operational Excellence to these companies all over the globe.

One of Kevin’s favorite courses to teach is the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt course because it gets everyone in the organization engaged in simple root cause analysis and bring many small rapid improvements to the organization. 

One of Kevin’s favorite quotes is:

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both." -Zen Buddhist

You can contact the Author Kevin Clay of at [email protected] or 479-739-4940