Erdem Özdemir 030070307 - 5th Week Definitions

Cause and Effect Diagram
Management

New – Better Definition

The Cause and Effect Diagram (CED) is a tool to identify, relate and graphically display causes of a problem (see Figure 14.6a). In a wider sense, since the problem is related to a process, CED visualizes the entire process. Very helpful in that regard is its hierarchical structure, indicating relationships of the effect to the main causes and their subsequent sub-causes. For example, main cause X has a direct relationship with the effect, while each of the subcauses is linked in terms of its level of impact on the main subcause. CED is also called the fishbone diagram because of its similarity to the skeleton of a fish or Ishikawa diagram for its inventor Kaoru Ishikawa.

(Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager, 2003, Dragan Z. Milošević, P. 485)



Previous:

The cause and effect diagram is a graphical-tabular chart used to list and analyze the potential causes of a given problem. It is not really a statistical tool in the sense of the preceding tools.  Because of its characteristic appearance, the cause and effect diagram is also known as a tishbone diagram. In application, the cause and effect diagram
is developed by a quality team. The team then attempts to determine which causes are most consequential and how to take corrective action against them.


Gıoover, Automation, Production Systems and CIM. P.672