Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

Chapter 15: Managing Operations, Quality, and Productivity

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Quality circles often use the fishbone “cause-

and-effect” graphical technique to initiate the reso-

lution of a group work problem. Quite often the

causes are clustered in categories such as materials,

methods, people, and machines. The fishbone tech-

nique is usually accomplished in the following six

steps:

1.

Write the problem in the “head” of the fish (the

large block).

2.

Brainstorm the major causes of the problem, and

list them on the fish “bones.”

3.

Analyze each main cause and write in minor

subcauses on bone subbranches.

4.

Reach consensus on one or two of the major

causes of the problem.

5.

Explore ways to correct or remove the major causes.

6.

Prepare a report or presentation explaining the

proposed change.

7.

Your fishbone will look something like this:

MANAGEMENT AT WORK