FishboneFishbone Six Sigma Foundations Continuous Improvement Training Six Sigma Foundations Continuous Improvement Training Six Sigma Simplicity

Key Learning Points  First Step is Honing in on the VITAL FEW Causes  Remember, It is still OPINIONS  First Step is Honing in on the VITAL FEW Causes  Remember, It is still OPINIONS

Fishbone - Where Does It Fit?  Measurement, narrowing projects, combining different people’s perspective of a situation

Fishbone - Why Do We Need It?  Groups potential causes for defects around common categories  Involves team  Highlights where additional data gathering needs to occur  Helps scope a project  Natural follow-on from brainstorming to either simplify or expand ideas

Fishbone - Who Should Create It?  Any team member should know how to create a Fishbone  All people who are affected by the process should be involved (even if you have to conduct two sessions and combine results)  Needs to be kept simple

Fishbone – Example

Fishbone – Exercise Now create a Fishbone in your groups on a Flip chart to show what areas of projects in your experience have failed. i.e. problem statement = ‘Project failure’

Solution Effect - Where Does It Fit?  Often people have a choice of potential solutions. A Solution effect diagram is drawn as before excepting a solution 1) Proposed Solution 2) Anticipated effects of solution

Solution & Effect - Why Do We Need It?  Identifies weaknesses and side effects of proposed solution  Involves team  Highlights where additional refinement of Control plan / management of buy in needs to occur  Again helps scope a project’s implementation

Zoom in - Force Field Diagram  Each branch and sub branch of a Fishbone can be examined to isolate the desired and undesired effects of enabling team to develop a detailed understanding of the influences on project success

Zoom Out- Scoping  Can the team change the environment?  Should the team consider changing the number of people working in a department  How much expenditure on equipment is realistic  Does the customer dictate parts of the process  Are there areas to avoid

Adding Data/ Votes  If you have data e.g. number of failures, cost of failures you can add these to the branches to weight them  If you want to decide where to start the team’s analysis consider n/3 voting to identify areas of most interest

Procedure for Fishbone 1. Agree on problem 2. Draw horizontal line in center of page 3. Write problem at fish head 4. Draw bones - you may use titles: Manpower, Machine, Method, Measurement, Management, Mother Nature (Environment) - or choose your own as appropriate 5. Brainstorm/copy ideas onto fishbone 6. Create sub branches as appropriate 7. Zoom in/ Zoom out as appropriate 8. Score / Vote as appropriate to prioritize action 9. Switch from Cause - Effect to Solution Effect as appropriate

FishboneFishbone Six Sigma Foundations Continuous Improvement Training Six Sigma Foundations Continuous Improvement Training