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Affinity
Diagram
The
Affinity Diagram
is an analysis tool that allows a team to
systematically generate a large volume of ideas or inputs about a
problem or issue and organize these into logical groupings to promote a
fuller understanding of the problem or issue and facilitate its
resolution.
The affinity diagram is good
for: 1) encouraging people to become creative in providing their inputs
to unravel a problem; 2) promoting communication among different members
of a team; 3) identifying both the natural and non-conventional links
between ideas; 4) bringing out breakthrough results in a natural way; 5)
enhances the feeling of ownership of results among team members; and 6)
preventing a team from meeting a blank wall when the information either
becomes overwhelming or confusing.
To construct an affinity
diagram, the following steps are usually followed:
1) state the problem or
issue of interest in one full sentence (see example in Fig. 1);
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What
steps and considerations are involved in setting up an early
life failure monitor? |
Figure 1.
Example of a Problem Statement for an Affinity Diagram
2) brainstorm at least 20
ideas or sub-issues that can contribute to the understanding and resolution of the problem
or over-all issue at hand and write each input in large, bold letters on
a sticky note; post each sticky note on a board
that's visible to the entire team (see Table 1 for ideas brainstormed
for the problem in Figure 1);
Table 1.
Ideas Generated for the Problem Statement in Figure 1
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1)
equipment needed
2)
manpower available
3)
equipment available
4)
failure mechanisms of interest
5)
in-house reliability testing capability
6)
over-all procedure for the ELF monitor
7) components of a
basic ELF monitor
8)
customer returns being received
9) failure analysis
support for the monitor
10) how the ELF
monitor will integrate into the over-all Rel program of the
company
11) cost of any new
equipment needed
12) levels of
expertise of personnel
13)
what kind of data the ELF monitor must generate |
14) training needed
for the personnel
15) the actual purpose
of the ELF monitor
16) the
consummables needed for the monitor
17) the utilities
required by the monitor
18) procedures and rel
tests needed for each component of the ELF monitor
19) capital expense
budget approved for the monitor
20) cost of sustaining
the monitor per quarter
21) reporting of the
ELF monitor data
22) metrics for the
ELF monitor
23) ownership for the
ELF monitor
24) test support for
the ELF monitor |
3) sort the
ideas from the brainstorming into 5-10 related groupings by
silently
moving
the sticky
notes around; very large groupings may be further broken down into
smaller subgroups, as long as each subgroup represents a common idea;
<Proceed to Page 2>
See Also:
Tree Diagram;
Matrix Diagram
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