Template of Fishbone Diagram

A Fishbone Diagram can be defined as a very simple tool that shall permit quick and effective track of root causes in the pursuit of taking the corrective actions and this is also known as cause and effect diagram or in other words Ishikawa diagram. In a Fishbone Diagram template basically, there will be several causes and those shall be grouped into various classes which then shall be used to highlight the causes of the potential issue.

About the Template

In the year 1968, introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa for quality management process and hence the reason it’s named as Ishikawa diagram.
The main goal of this fishbone diagram is to brainstorm all the kind of potential causes which shall cause the obstacle and then get deep inside into the influencers which are causing the issue eventually. Once the issue is found out and after eliminating them by the team, it shall allow the team to keep eye on why the issue occurred. Also, it will let one keep an eye on the history or symptoms of the problem. Moreover, from this diagram analysts will be able to view the snapshot, which shall be real-time, of the collective inputs that have been provided by the team.
Basically, this diagram shall be used to represent causality and it will have 2 causes, one is primary and the other one is a secondary cause. The 1^st is the primary cause which would directly result in the effect while the other one which is the secondary cause is the one which shall lead it to a primary cause indirectly and it will not have an end effect directly.

Components of Fishbone Diagram Template

Companies can design per their requirement they want, however, the generalize format has been discussed below:

TOP PART

Part #1 – All of the Top Boxes

The number of boxes is not defined for the template and there can be multiple templates as per the requirement and as per the factors affecting the problem. These boxes shall represent the main root causes and they have to be grouped into and then they have to be displayed here. They have to be generalized as there could be multiple similar reasons but will be driving to the same factor or root cause. These groups can also be sources that shall represent the issue.

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Example: If the company is looking into low customer satisfaction, and if the reason they found out is ineffective marketing or the cost of materials, etc. these two can be grouped into one source called High pricing as one of the reasons.

Part #2 – All of the Arrows Representing the Boxes

In this part, the team can now group the various causes into one common group which shall lead to the same. Taking the same example that was discussed above wherein the company is trying to figure out the various reasons for customer dissatisfaction, and wherein we discussed the sources such as ineffective marketing or cost of materials then this will be displayed under small arrows which here in the above diagram are tagged as the cause. There could be the second group tagged as low-quality products wherein the multiple causes could be a bad quality raw material or bad design of the product or the employees those who are involved in servicing the product are ineffective.

Part #3 – All of the Bottom Boxes

Now here again the content would be the same, that is one that needs to include the group sources of the problems that lead to an effect. Since the design is made in fish type and hence the groups are split into two parts one is the top part and the second one is the bottom part. However, it isn’t necessary to keep the count, but one can definitely insert any one reason in the bottom for better representation and complete the picture.

Part #4 – All of the Bottom Arrows

Now here again the content would be the same, that is the reasons or the causes that are leading to the main group cause-effect and eventually leading to the problem. This is way easy to represent the issues, group them, and start taking corrective action.

How to Use This Template?

The fishbone diagram is similar to a fish’s skeleton wherein the problems are its head and the factors or the reasons for the issue or the problem those shall be feeding into the spine.
One needs to first identify the main problem and, in the example, discussed above was customer dissatisfaction with the main problem. Now the team would start brainstorming upon the reasons that have lead to customer dissatisfaction which shall include low-quality products, high pricing, poor sales support, etc.
Now, these factors will form the head that is directly leading to the effect which is customer dissatisfaction. Further, there will be issues that lead to these main heads and for example in case of poor sales support the reasons could be long waiting queues whenever the customer arrives, the fees charged for the sales support provided, the time taken to resolve the customer issue.
So, these small reasons won’t directly lead to customer dissatisfaction but eventually and indirectly it shall lead to. Hence in this way, one can represent this in one diagram and present the same to the higher management.
Hence, once all the factors or causes that underlie the issues of the problem have been recognized, the Team leaders can initiate to look for the issue resolution or solutions to ensure that the issue or the problem doesn’t become a one which shall recurr.

Fishbone Diagram Template