Workshop $4$: Cause$-$and$-$Effect Diagrams & Pareto Charts

The tools practiced in this workshop are:

$5$ whys$/$why$-$why analysis

$$ Cause$-$and$-$effect diagrams

$$ Pareto charts

Situation:

Because of where you live you are dependent upon your vehicle to get to work, school,

shopping, recreation, and most other things you do outside of your home. Over the past few

months, you have noticed that your budget for gasoline has been steadily increasing. In the

Analyze phase of your Lean Six Sigma project, you decide to investigate potential causes for

$$why your fuel consumption is increasing.$$ To do this, you plan to use $5$ whys$/$why$-$why analysis

in conjunction with a cause$-$and$-$effect diagram. Then, you will collect data about the most

significant potential causes of your problem and create a Pareto chart to determine the leading

cause of this problem.

Instructions:

Use information from your training manual in Analyze Phase $$ Lessons $7-10$ to assist you with

the activities that follow. Be sure to follow the $$best practices$$ for each tool you use in this

workshop.

After completing your cause$-$and$-$effect diagram, reflect on all the items listed and select what

you believe are the top five potential causes increased fuel consumption $($these can be causes,

sub$-$causes, and$/$or sub$-$sub$-$causes$).$ Please label these with the numbers $1-5,$ where $1$

represents what you believe is the leading cause of the problem. Then, obtain the file Pareto

Chart Workshop Data.xls from Blackboard. This file is meant to simulate the process of you

collecting data about the top $5$ causes of your problem. Pretend the data in this file was collected

from your observations and records. The data in this file are already $$coded$$ for you, so all you

need to do is fill$-$in the $$key$($based on the items you labeled $1-5$ in your cause$-$and$-$effect

diagram$)$ so you will know what each number represents. You can then create your Pareto chart

using this data in Microsoft Excel.

Activities:

$1.$ Create a cause$-$and$-$effect diagram $($using $5$ whys$/$why$-$why analysis$)$ that organizes

potential causes for why your fuel costs are increasing:

$[$Using MS Snip or Mac Grab copy and paste the Cause & Effect diagram here. Do NOT submit

the Excel spreadsheet.$]$

Double$-$click to put student name$($s$)$ here

$$UH$-$COT $2021$ Fall Semester

$2.$ Create a Pareto chart that depicts the causes for fuel costs increasing:

$[$Using MS Snip or Mac Grab copy and paste the Pareto chart here. Do NOT submit the Excel

spreadsheet.$]$

$3.$ Based on the Pareto chart you created for Activity #$2$ of this Workshop, what cause of the

problem should you address first in your Lean Six Sigma project and why?

$4.$ Did the results of your Pareto chart surprise you $($i$.$e$.,$ was the order of the actual top $5$

causes of the problem shown in your Pareto chart different than what you had originally

identified in your cause$-$and$-$effect diagram$)?$ What does this illustrate about the

importance of collecting data about a problem versus using only instinct$/$intuition$?$

$5.$ On the tab labeled $$Accident Reports$$ in the Excel spreadsheet, using the QI Macros

add$-$in for Excel to create a Pareto Chart for the departments reporting accidents.

$[$Using MS Snip or Mac Grab copy and paste the diagram here. Do NOT submit the Excel

spreadsheet.$]$

$6.$ Based on the Pareto chart you created for Activity #$5$ of this Workshop, what cause of the