Page 38 - MODULE QUALITY TOOLS DMQ 30262

DMQ 30262

The steps to complete the interrelationship digraph are as follows:

a. Construct an affinity diagram to identify the issues relating to a problem. After
you have done this, place the cards with related issues in columns with gaps
between the cards. It is helpful to use sticky notes on a large piece of flipchart

paper.

b. Create the diagraph by examining the cards one by one asking, “What other
issues on this digraph are caused or influenced by this issue?” As team
members identify issues that are related, draw a one-way arrow from the first

issue (the cause) to the second issue (the one influenced by the cause). Do this
until all the issues have been discussed.

c. After reviewing the arrows and making needed revisions, count the numbers of
arrows pointing to each note, and write the numbers on the notes.

d. Identify the cards with the most arrows as the “key factors”. Experience has
shown that there should not be more than 5 to 10 key factors, depending on the

issue being discussed. Some cards may have several arrows, but for one
reason or another they are not really key factors; they can be dropped from

consideration at this point. Boxes with the most outgoing arrows tend to be the
root causes; those with incoming arrows tend to be performance indicators.

e. Draw a double box around the key factors and brainstorm ways to address
these issues.

Example 3.2:

Interrelationship digraphs. For the issues relating to sales reference tools in
Figure 3.4, team members were interested in knowing what issues had the
greatest effects on other issues. This would help them to know where to focus

their effort in coming weeks.

Solution:

The cards from the affinity diagram in Example 3.1 were used to identify the

relationships between the different issues. For presentation purposes, we
only used the cards from the first four columns in the affinity diagram (i.e.

KKTM Kuantan 37 DMQ 30262