SOME SIMPLE MATHEMATICAL AIDS FOR CAUSE-AND-EFFECT ANALYSES

A common approach used in quality or process improvement is cause-and- effect analysis. It involves identifying a (large) number of possible causes of an undesirable effect or problem, and then choosing the sequ ence of investigation of the possible causes. The philosophy of contin uous improvement dictates that any associated modelling should use rel atively simple, robust models that provide insights and guidance witho ut extensive data collection or computational requirements. Thus, we p resent some fairly simple mathematical formulations of the aforementio ned sequencing decision.