Page 209 - Six Sigma Demystified

Affinity Diagrams

Affinity diagrams are used to take a chaotic jumble of thoughts and ideas and
sort them into coherent groupings. They help you to see all aspects of a prob-
lem and to figure out how these aspects are related. This method highlights
trends and patterns that otherwise might have gone unrecognized. From there,
you can begin to address problems meaningfully rather than as a scattered col-
lection of unrelated issues.

When to Use

The affinity diagram often will be your first step in a problem-solving process.
Use it when you have a large number of thoughts, ideas, or facts that are not
organized in any coherent manner. It is also very useful when traditional solu-
tions to a problem have failed, and you need to find new ways to approach the
problem and build consensus.

Define Stage to Control Stage

• To reach consensus on issues affecting team or project success, such as the
project’s objectives, scope, or data-collection strategy
• To understand perceptions of current problems and their root causes and
then to categorize to focus the project’s data collection
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