Ishikawa Diagram
By Tobias Stabrand
This article will describe the Ishikawa Diagram and provide guidance on the tool's application in project management and its usefulness within the fields of risk- and quality management in projects. The article is part of the course 42433 Advanced Engineering Project, Program, and Portfolio Management F2022 at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
Contents |
Abstract
Managing projects can be difficult, and projects will oftentimes run into problems no matter how well-planned they are. It is therefore of great importance to monitor projects throughout their lifetime, to identify risks and quality issues, as they can have a significant influence on the desired objective of the project. The Ishikawa Diagram is a tool that can help in identifying and analysing why a problem occurred, what happened, how it can be fixed as well as how to prevent it from happening again.[1] The tool can both be applied in the pre-project activities to identify potential risks associated with a new project, during the project process, and in the post-project activities for evaluation and improvements of future projects.[2]
The Ishikawa Diagram provides a structured approach to finding root causes to given problem´s and breaking down the contributing factors systematically into smaller elements. The systematic breakdown of the problem can make the greatest causes and effects more evident, and thus allow 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 its historical context and give hands-on guidance on how to apply the tool to manage risk- and quality problems in projects. Moreover, the article will discuss and explore the application of the Ishikawa Diagram in conjunction with other project management tools. Lastly, the article will present possible limitations of the tool.
The Big Idea: The Ishikawa Diagram
Professor Kaoru Ishikawa was an organisational theorist and was employed at the engineering faculty of the University of Tokyo. He was an expert in quality management and highly respected for his innovations, which includes the Ishikawa Diagram. Due to the diagram’s visual appearance, the tool is also known as the fishbone diagram, but it is also referred to as the cause-and-effect diagram. The methodology was introduced in the 1940s but first popularised in the 1960s.[3] Kaoru Ishikawa pioneered quality management processes at the Kawasaki shipyards, where he was employed and is today seen as one of the founding fathers of modern management.[4] Kaoru Ishikawa invented the tool for managing product quality issues and root cause investigation in the manufacturing industry. However, today the tool is applied to various problems and situations in several industries.
Project management is about coordinating activities to direct and control the project to achieve desired and agreed objectives.[2] Controlling projects are about comparing actual performance to planned performance as well as analysing these differences to be able to take proper corrective and preventive actions. A project should be completed, and objectives are reached within an identified number of constraints, such as: Budget, duration, risk level, governmental requirements, and quality standards.[2]
The Ishikawa Diagram can be used to identify risks and find the potential root causes of an expected problem in risk management.[5] Risk management revolves around increasing the possibility of achieving the project’s objective. This is a responsibility that all project members have and involves identifying, assessing, treating, controlling, and responding to risks.[2] If a risk is experienced or identified at any time during a projects’ life cycle it must be recorded. Thus, it can be assessed for probability and consequence and prioritised for further action.
Quality management in project management is also essential. Quality management focuses on increasing the likelihood that the outputs are aligned with the performance levels that are required to be met.[2] Quality in projects is important to ensure the project’s deliverables and hence quality control activities can focus on the corrective, detective, and preventive actions. For this purpose, the Ishikawa Diagram is good at tracking, identifying, and diagnosing why quality issues occur during project execution and finding effective solutions.[1] Furthermore, the tool is useful to take preventive actions.
The tools use of visual representation of the problem or effect makes it easier to absorb data and turn it into valuable information. Visualisation of a problem eases the identification- and helps trace the undesirable effect back to its root cause.[5] Since the Ishikawa Diagram combines brainstorming and visualisation of the causes, it makes the tool very good at both identifying risks and ensuring quality in projects.
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
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Aldridge, E. (2022). Root Cause Analysis Steps PMP Exam Guide. Projectmanagementacademy.net. https://projectmanagementacademy.net/resources/blog/root-cause-analysis-steps-pmp-exam-guide/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 International Organization for Standardization. (2020). Project, programme and portfolio management – Guidance on project management (DS/ISO 21502:2020). https://sd.ds.dk/Viewer?ProjectNr=M351700&Status=60.60.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute. https://app-knovel-com.proxy.findit.cvt.dk/kn/resources/kpSPMAGPMP/toc?kpromoter=federation.
