Fishbone

The team lead provides a problem statement. The problem statement should be placed on the right-hand side of the diagram. (Like inside the fish head) What is the problem? How and when is it happening?

Spend 5 to 10 minutes brainstorming with your team. Think about all of the things that are creating the problem.

You are probably noticing that a few things had something in common and could be inside the same category. Start evaluating all the main categories that each cause will fall into. Try to create at least 3 categories and a maximum of 10. Place each category at the end of each bone. Example: Physical product: people, methods, materials, machines, the environment, sales.

Now you and your team have all the categories, you can start placing each cause inside each category. Each category will become the “bones” of the fish. Each bone will help you understand the root cause of the problem. To evaluate each category or cause even further you can use the 5 Whys. the 5 ways is a systematic way to understand the problem deeply by asking 5 times why.