Cause-and-Effect Diagram

Cause-and-Effect Diagram

1. A Cause-and-Effect Diagram is a tool that helps identify, sort, and display possible causes of a specific problem or quality characteristic.

   • Constructing a Cause-and- Effect Diagram can help your team when you need to:
     • Identify the possible root causes, the fundamental reasons, for a specific effect, problem, or condition
     • Determine and relate some of the interactions among the factors affecting a particular process or effect
     • Analyze existing problems so that corrective action can be taken.

2. Encourages group participation and utilizes group knowledge of the process.

3. Identifies areas where data should be collected for further study.

4. It uses an orderly, easy-to-read format. Indicates possible causes of variation in a process.