What is... an Affinity Diagram?
by Steven Bonacorsi on 17th March 2008
Introduction
The affinity diagram is a management and planning tool. Use of this tool is based on the understanding that time invested in planning will produce remarkable dividends as the generated ideas and plans are acted upon and implemented. Unlike the basic tools for improvement that deal primarily with collecting and analyzing hard data, this tool focuses on issues and ideas, soft data. An affinity diagram is the result of a creative process focused on finding the major themes affecting a problem by generating a number of ideas, issues or opinions. The process identifies these ideas, groups naturally related items and identifies the one concept that ties each grouping together. The team working on a problem reaches consensus by the cumulative effect of individual sorting decisions rather than through discussion.
What can it do for you?
Affinity diagrams can help you organize random data to show the underlying organization of a problem or issue. They are especially useful if the situation seems chaotic because there is an excess of ideas, influences, objectives or requirements, or if breakthrough thinking rather than incremental improvement is required. An affinity diagram can help clarify the broad themes and issues acting on any situation. The affinity process lets you sift through large volumes of information efficiently and allows truly new patterns or approaches to emerge for consideration. Affinity diagrams are especially useful in the measure and analyze phases of Lean Six Sigma methodology.
How do you do it?
- The first step is to assemble the right team.
The team should consist of five or six people who have knowledge about the situation to be considered. They should be relatively familiar with each other and accustomed to working together and should “speak the same language,” but care should be taken not to bring together the same old people to work on the same old problem. Include people with valuable input who may not have been included in the past. If the team needs specific information beyond the scope of the members’ knowledge, the team should draw in resource people as temporary team members. - Phrase the issue to be considered.
The affinity process seems to be most effective if the issue is loosely or vaguely stated. The more explanation or limitation in the issue statement, the more likely the thought process will be constrained. The statement should be neutral to avoid limiting or directing responding ideas. For example, “How are we going to fix our quality problems?” might produce a fuller and more valuable collection of responses if rephrased “What are the issues affecting product quality?” When you have decided the phrasing of the statement, write it on the top of a flipchart or board so that it is visible to the group.
- Generate and record ideas. This step of the process uses the traditional guidelines for brainstorming:
- No criticism or discussion of ideas
- Generate many ideas in a short time
- Everyone participates
- Record the ideas exactly as spoken and not as interpreted by the recorder.
One technique is to have team members silently record their ideas on 3x5 cards or Post-it™ notes for some amount of time. Members can then take turns offering ideas one-at-a-time for the recorder to write on a flip-chart or board. As the ideas are recorded, other team members can use those ideas to help generate additional ideas and additional cards. To be most useful, idea statements should be:
- Concise, about five to seven words
- Unambiguous, at least one noun and one verb
- Legible, printed neatly, one idea to a card
Another technique is to generate ideas and have the recorder write them directly on a flip-chart or board (without having team members first write them on cards). After all the ideas have been recorded, the team would then transfer them to cards.
- Display the completed idea cards.
Randomly lay out the cards so that all the team members can see them.
- Arrange the cards in natural groupings.
The purpose of this step is to collect ideas that go with each other. In silence, all team members should simultaneously begin moving idea cards, collecting and arranging in columns the cards that each person believes belong together.
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