Workshop 3: Affinity Diagrams & Interrelationship Diagraphs

The tools practiced in this workshop are:

• Brainstorming
• Affinity diagrams
• Interrelationship diagraphs

Situation:

Consider that you/your group works for Vic & Anthonys (a premier steakhouse restaurant) and you have been tasked with perfecting the customer experience. In the Analyze phase of your Lean Six Sigma project, you decide to brainstorm ideas for why customers might have a negative experience dining with you. Then, you plan to use an affinity diagram and an interrelationship diagraph to organize all these ideas and then pin-point the key driver(s) and outcome(s) of this problem.

Instructions:

Use information from your training manual in Analyze Phase Lessons 2-6 to assist you with the activities that follow. Be sure to follow the best practices for each tool you use in this workshop.

Activities:

1. Brainstorm ideas for why customers might have a negative experience dining with you.

Note: You do not have to show your work here, as it will be shown in Activity #2.

2. Create an affinity diagram that organizes your ideas for why customers might have a negative experience dining with you:

[Paste your affinity diagram here (use template provided in Blackboard). Please ensure your work is readable on an 8 in. x 11 in. piece of paper or you will not receive credit for your work.]

3. Create an interrelationship diagraph that shows the relationships between causes for why customers might have a negative experience dining with you and that highlights the key driver(s) and key outcome(s) you identify regarding this problem:

[Paste your interrelationship diagraph here (use template provided in Blackboard). Please ensure your work is readable on an 8 in. x 11 in. piece of paper or you will not receive credit for your work.]