Fishbone Diagram Types

According to the structure of fishbone, fishbone diagrams can be divided into the following types, each suited to a challenge or approach.

In its basic form, the Ishkawa diagram has no predetermined affinities, or categories of causes, so you can decide affinities that may be unique to your organization. For example, a service company may need to analyze affinities that wouldn't be found in a manufacturing firm, and vice versa.

This kind of fishbone diagram is commonly used in the service industry. It classifies information about potential causes into four common categories: Suppliers, Systems, Surroundings, and Skills. This variation, usually used in manufacturing field, enable you to organize causes logically into 6 categories: Man, Materials, Machine, Methods, Measurements, and Mother Nature (or environment). Sometimes, two more categories are included: Management/Money and Maintenance. This variation divides causes into 8 categories: Procedures, Policies, Place, Product, People, Processes, Price, and Promotion. This type is most commonly used in the service sector, but can certainly be applied in nearly any type of business. Sometimes, not all categories are included in a cause and effect analysis depending on the actual need. In other words, a business problem's causes can be analyzed from the following perspectives: Physical Evidence, Personnel, Place, Product (Service), Price, Promotion, Process, and Productivity & quality. The above fishbone templates are created by Edraw fishbone software, along with dozens of other diagram solutions. You can, of course, just draw out your fishbone diagram on paper. But a cool thing about creating a fishbone diagram in software is that the factors you enter during your brainstorming session can be drag-and-dropped and/or exported into other tools, reducing the need to re-enter data.

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Fishbone Diagram Symbols

Fishbone Diagram Examples and Templates