The Ishikawa diagram is also known as the fishbone diagram. It is a tool to solve problems in different places in the company (production, administration and service). For this there different kinds of diagrams.

When to use

Ishikawa is used in different phases in the development.

• to solve difficult problems, where the cause in not obvious
• as brainstorm tool

Description

A problem can often have different kinds of causes. In  production the 6M Ishikawa is used this stands for Machine, Method, Materials, Maintenance, Man and Mother Nature (environment). For administration and service the 8P’s are used. This stands for Price, Promotion, People, Processes, Plant, Policies, Procedures, and Product (Service). Another commonly Ishikawa is the 4S Ishikawa, this stands for Surroundings,  Suppliers, Systems, Skills.