Quality Control - Fishbone Diagrams

One of the simplest  tools to evaluate cause and effect in quality control is the fishbone diagram.  It is simple to understand and can be implemented on a piece of paper if that is all that you have.  From it you can often quickly determine a root cause of a problem and then take the necessary steps to correcting the problem to move forward.

Using the analogy of a "fishbone", the "head" of a fish is identified as the cause of the problem.  Working back toward the tail of the fish, potential causes of the problem are identified.  Each potential cause is carefully and thoroughly evaluated to verify if is truly a cause of the problem.  As the causes are evaluated, the diagram is filled out to look like skeletal structure of a fish.

(Fishbone Diagram template - courtesy of resourcesteaching.com)

I have used this type of analysis several times and it has been proven to be very successful.  There is no advanced training or education necessary to understand it.  Only a willingness to fix a problem.