3DLean provides a set of Sketch background templates to apply Lean tools and methods in a graphical way. 

You can find those templates in Documents > Sketches Templates.

One is called the Ishikawa diagram, or fish-bone diagram, or cause-effect diagram:

Its goal is to determine which issues have to be addressed in order to solve or avoid a particular problem. It is used as a quality control in manufacturing, in product development and in service industries mainly. The version we offer is dedicated to manufacturing as other domains will have different categories (8Ps for Product Development or 4Ss for Service industries).

The "ribs" represent the different groups of causes of an event. The event is positioned on the "head" of the fish.

Steps to use it:

1) Create the problem sticky-note and put it in the problem zone on the right

2) Brainstorm possible causes of this specific problem: everyone can create one or several Note sticky-notes and position them in their respective categories (Manpower, machine, environment, method or material). You can ask the question "Why did this problem occur?"

3) Taking each identified potential cause, ask again "Why did this occur?". You can create a sub-branch to indicate the reason why your first cause occurred. You can repeat this step until you reach the root cause of the problem. You could also use the 5 Why's template in another Sketch to deep dive into one potential cause which requires more space.

Go further:

The next step after identifying potential causes of a problem is to determine which root cause we will address first. To do so, you could apply the Pareto law to determine what are the 20% of causes which produce 80% of effects.

In 3DLean, we suggest to create Action sticky-notes in front of the different causes to be addressed. Of course, those actions will have to be assigned to someone and planned. They can then be attached to the problem to capitalize on the process which has been done.

Tip:

You can also take a screenshot of the Ishikawa diagram and attach it to the problem for later recovery.

PS: This causal diagram can help you quickly identify if the root cause is found multiple times in the same or different causal trees. It is very visual so it can be used to ensure everyone sees all the potential causes of a problem and it can even be used to prevent a problem to a stakeholder.