Part 3Six Sigma Tools

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 problem 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 collection 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 solutions to a problem have failed, and you need to ...

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