The fishbone diagram, also known as the Ishikawa diagram, was designed by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a management theorist and engineering professor who introduced the idea of quality circles to organizations in Japan.
In a fishbone diagram, the issue or problem to be explored is shown as the fish’s head, with possible causes spread out to the left in a way that resembles fishbones.
A complementary concept, called “five whys” was developed by Sakichi Toyoda of Toyota Motors, during the evolution of the famous Toyota Production System, which revolutionized the auto industry between 1948 and 1975. The idea is that you need to ask “why?” at least five times before you can uncover the true root cause of a problem.
Are you seeing a recurring problem? Are you struggling to understand what is causing it? Can you draw a fishbone diagram and use the “five whys” method to discover the root causes of the problem?
See also: Org chart, Decision tree, Peeling the onion.
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