The fishbone diagram is a tool developed by Kaoru Ishikawa to identify potential causes of problems through a structured brainstorming process. It provides a visual representation with the problem as the backbone and major categories of causes as branches, then identifies specific causes within each category by asking "why" each cause occurs. The fishbone diagram helps teams discover root causes of issues in a systematic way.

1. The Fishbone Diagram By Martin Fernandez

3. When do we use the fishbone diagram? If you want to discover the root causes of a problem If you need a structured method to guide a team

4. THE PROCEDURE Step 1 – Agree on a Problem Statement. Use this as the Backbone of your diagram.

5. THE PROCEDURE Step 2 – Think of Major Categories of the causes of the problem

6. Step 3 – Write those categories as branches of the center arrow.

7. THE PROCEDURE Step 4 – Brainstorm all the possible causes of the problem “ Why does this happen?”

8. THE PROCEDURE Step 5 –Ask “why does this happen?” about each cause

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