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Using the Fishbone Diagram for identifying possible causes to problems
The Fishbone diagram, also known as the Cause and Effect or Ishikawa diagram is a quality management tool that allows you to quickly identify, visualize, and organize “causes” or “problems” that can lead to an effect. The diagram was developed by Kaoru Ishikawa and first presented in 1945 as a tool for analyzing the causes…
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Spotting correlations with the Scatter Diagram
The Scatter diagram is a type of graph that is used to visually represent the relationship (or lack of) between variables. We use this when we want to find out if the variables that we are examining are correlated (if there is any sort of relationship between them). A very important thing to understand is…
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Trend visualization with the Histogram
You might already know about this quality tool either from different fields or just from your general knowledge. The Histogram, at its core, is a visual representation of the distribution of quantitative data. The Histogram takes the shape of a bar chart, and the main component of a Histogram is what is called a “bin”…
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Pareto Chart and the Law of the “Vital few”
My relationship with the Pareto chart has been a rather complicated one over the years, that’s why, unlike the other quality management tools that I sing praises to, you might find this to be a bit more critically reviewed. That is not to say that I don’t encourage using it, but I would emphasize the…
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Visualize your process and make better decisions with the help of the Flowchart
Like most quality tools, the Flowchart transcends the quality management barriers and is one of those tools that can be used in multiple fields. We can see frequent applications in software development, project management, education, sales, business process mapping, and so on. And chances are, you’ve most likely seen one of these around at some…
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The Check sheet – a simple yet versatile tool to help you stay organized
You may be glad to hear that you know this quality tool – and might’ve even used it before without realizing it. The cheek sheet is yet another one of those quality tools that is easy, and intuitive to use but can make a huge difference. The main idea of this tool is to have…
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How the Affinity Diagram can help organize ideas
The Affinity diagram (also known as affinity mapping or the K-J Method) was created in 1960 by Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita and although it may seem simplistic, don’t let that convince you that it’s also not incredibly useful. The diagram is useful whenever one is confronted with a large amount of data and/or ideas (like…