Ishikawa
diagrams were developed in 1950 by Professor K. Ishikawa for root
cause analysis. He observed that most plant employees were overwhelmed
by the number of factors that could potentially influence a process.
To simplify things he developed a simple graphical tool for displaying
and organizing potential causes of a problem.
An
Ishikawa analysis consists of defining an effect or problem associated
with a process and then using a brainstorming session to delineate
the possible causes associated with this effect.
The relationship between the causes
and effect are usually displayed in a fishbone diagram or
cause and
effect diagram.