Learning how to stop yourself from making mistakes is very, very hard. Fishbone diagram can help you learn what is causing your mistake, and then how to root that fault out and amend it or extract it from your process. It can be a very tough job. Scholars have written books on how to overcome mistakes and amend wrongdoings. In the modern world, we can find apps or some YouTube education videos that try to explain how to improve your process and increase your success, but these videos can seem either too complicated or too easy and simplistic. Fishbone analysis may be just your tool.
What Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram Is
This method was devised by Japanese organizational theorist Kaoru Ishikawa in 1968. It is utilized by businesses everywhere. It is designed specifically to stop employees from solving symptoms of a problem instead of its main causes. This method is known by some as a cause and effect diagram, or the Ishikawa diagram, but mostly it’s referred to as a fishbone diagram. Haven’t you seen it yet? Prepare to learn something that will greatly influence your approach to making decisions!
If you have in mind some defect, write it down on the right side of a sheet of paper because you keep missing your goal when playing football. Your website is going down. Whatever it is, write it down on the right side of a piece of paper, this will make the head of our fish, the main defect we are facing. Draw a horizontal line starting from this defect, and going back to the left. Draw simple fish skeleton. Now add your major causes, usually, but not always, these six subgroups will be enough to represent the main possible problem sources:
· Machine
· Method
· Material
· Human Recourses
· Measurement
· Environment
Is there any problem or issue with machines or equipment? How big is the goal you are kicking into, or how large is your server for your website? What are the issues with your methods – is there an issue with the ball you are using or with the content of your website or is there a question with people involved? Are you tired, overworked or malnourished? Are these calculations done correctly? Is there an issue with your surroundings, maybe the weather is extremely cold or the working environment is not beneficial.
Start with general titles and then work out each individual issue that could fit under these headings. Each sub-problem can have its possible causes too. We see that our diagram can be as deep as we wish to cover all events leading to a general question. It depends on our problem. Even at the beginning of building this diagram, we start to gain a more well-rounded view of what is going wrong.
You may see that, possibly, you were playing football in extremely cold weather, or the content of your website is quite large and problematic. A good fishbone diagram will contain many potential problems. They will be fitted into categories and sub-categories and the diagram will look detailed and complex.
Examples of Fishbone Diagrams
You are in charge of the production of an experimental sample of a new toy car. What are you supposed to do? The particular blueprints have been made, the revolutionary materials have been ordered – everything is going great, but then, on the stage of assembly, the mistake has been found. The production manager reports that this assembly procedure failed because one part came out the wrong size. We are puzzled. Obviously, the mold for this part has some fault in it, or does it? One can waste a great amount of time on producing a new mold, only to find out that their problem lies somewhere else. How to find this answer? Trying to amend the wrong causes may cost a great amount of money and, eventually, our project itself because our competitors will produce this revolutionary product. How can you start searching for the real causes? Our fishbone diagram will help you. Here is one example: