Ishikawa Diagram

By Tobias Stabrand

This article will describe the Ishikawa Diagram and give guidance on the tools' application in a project management setting. The article is made as part of the course 42433 Advanced Engineering Project, Program, and Portfolio Management F2022 at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Abstract

The Ishikawa Diagram was introduced back in the 1940s by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, who invented the tool for managing product quality issues and root cause investigation in the manufacturing industry. Due to the diagrams’ visual appearance the tool is also known as the Fishbone Diagram, but it is also referred to as the Cause-and-Effect Diagram. Today, the tool is used in various industries and situations both when problems have occurred, but also used in a proactive manner to prevent issues from happening. The tool provides a structured approach to finding root causes to given problem´s and breaks down the contributing factors systematically into smaller elements. The systematic breakdown of the problem makes the greatest causes and effects clearer and more evident, and thus allows for an effective problem-solving process. The intention is to solve problems at their root rather than at a more superficial level, to prevent the problems from reoccurring.

The purpose of this article is to present the Ishikawa Diagram and give a hands-on guidance on how to apply the tool in a project management perspective. Moreover, the article will explore the application of the Ishikawa Diagram in relation to other project management tools. Lastly, it will lay out the limitations of the tool when applying it in project management setting.

Referencer:

Larsen, S. B. (2018). Projekter & Rapporter: på tekniske uddannelser (1st ed.). Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Jensen, T. J., et al. (2011). Kvalitetsstyring og Måleteknik (1st ed.). Erhvervsskolernes Forlag.

Bicheno, J. and Holweg, M. (2016). The Lean Toolbox: a handbook for lean transformation (5th ed.). PICSIE Books.

Christiansen, T. B., et al. (2010). LEAN: implementering i danske virksomheder (1st ed.). Lindhardt og Ringhof.

Wong, K. C., et al. (2016). Ishikawa Diagram. Quality Improvement in Behavioral Health (1st ed. pp. 119-132). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26209-3_9

Liliana, L. (2016). A New Model of Ishikawa Diagram for Quality Assessment. Iop Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering — 2016, Volume 161, Issue 1, pp. 012099. Institute of Physics Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/161/1/012099