CREATING A FISHBONE DIAGRAM
Cause Enumeration

Kauro Ishikawa. 1982. Guide to Quality Control: 18-29

Yonatan Reshef
School of Business
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2R6 CANADA

Define the problem (which is a discrepancy between current and desired performance)

Collect information from students - 15 minutes
Use tools such as check sheets or brainstorming.  If check sheets are used, each cause should be totaled across 13/26/39 class meetings.  If brainstorming is used, decide on the technique:

Arrange the causes
Write causes on sticky notes.  Place the causes generated through the former step on a flip chart so that all the students can clearly see them.  Tape the sheets to the wall. 

Collect information from professors - 15 minutes
Get more information from a different source, professors.  Now, place the new set of causes on a flip chart so that all the students can clearly see them.  Place the sheets on the wall. 

Decide on the root causes - 10 minutes
Use check sheets, Pareto charts, and brainstorming to identify root (main) causes.   Here are a few templates:
4 M's of manfacturing - Machine, Method, Manpower, Material
4 S's of the service sector - Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills
5 M's - Measurement, Maintenance, Money, Management, Mother Nature
8 P's - Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Environment, Productivity

The root causes of the problem are the underlying processes and system properties that allowed the contributing factors to culimnate in a harmful event.  To help indetify the root causes from all the ideas generated, consider a multi-voting technique such as having each team member identify the top three root causes.  Once you have identified root causes and contributing factors, you will need to address each root cause and cntributing factor as appropriate.

Construct your diagram with the root causes

Review - 5 minutes

Construct the rest of the diagram - 15 minutes  
Attach the primary and secondary causes to their respective root causes

Review - 15 minutes

If time permits
Prioritize root/primary causes using the Nominal Group Technique, which allows a team to quickly come to a consensus on the relative importance of issues by integrating individual importance rankings into a team final priorities.

STEP 1 - The Team Attaches a letter to Each Major Cause
A Professor
B Students
C Facility
D Technology

STEP 2 - Each Team Member Ranks the Major Causes
A 3
B 4
C 2
D 1

Here, "4" is the most important and "1" is the least important ranking .

STEP 3
Summarize points across all the team member rankings

Prepare an action plan for improvement.