Process Thinking Bob Luttman, Robert Luttman & Associates

Home Page Introduction Process Thinking Flowcharts Cause-Effect Analysis Critical Path Method (aka PERT Charts) Failure Mode Effect Analysis (aka Variance Effect Analysis) Summary and Conclusion Assignment Questions Comments References/Bibliography

Cause-Effect Analysis Cause-effect analysis (aka the Ishikawa diagram, the fishbone diagram) was invented by Kaoaru Ishikawa, the great Japanese qualit guru. It is a tool for cataloging and sorting a problem's causes. This tool is the first step in a problem solving process. For common problems or variances, the team should do these as part of the design process, collect the data to document the causes during the management cycle, and refer to it during the improvement cycle. A different tool for cause-effect is the system diagram espoused by Peter Senge and the Learning Organization people (see The Fifth Discipline, by Senge). It is a broader tool used to analyze messier (i.e., "non-linear") process problems. It is a tool for describing vicious circle problems. I have written a Short Takes on these tools. You will find it here. don't forget to come BACK.

rluttman@robertluttman.com
Improving Healthcare Across the Continuum