What is a fishbone diagram and when should I use one?

A fishbone diagram (also called an Ishikawa diagram or cause-and-effect diagram) is a structured visual tool for root cause analysis. The 'head' of the fish is the problem or effect; each major 'bone' is a category of potential causes; mid-level bones and end-cause leaves drill down to verifiable single-point causes. Use a fishbone when you need to organize brainstorming, structure a Six Sigma DMAIC analyze phase, prepare an ISO 9001 CAPA, document a Joint Commission RCA, or run a blameless software post-mortem — any time you need a shared picture of every plausible cause before picking which ones to verify.

What are the 6M categories in a fishbone diagram?

The 6M categories are the classic manufacturing-focused branches of a fishbone: Man (people and operators), Machine (equipment and tools), Material (raw materials, components), Method (process and procedures), Measurement (inspection, instruments, and data), and Mother Nature (environmental factors like humidity, temperature, vibration). This generator builds the 6M skeleton by default and lets you swap in 4P (People, Process, Place, Product), 5M+1E (the 6M with Environment instead of Mother Nature), 8P, or a custom category list when your domain is service, healthcare, software, or research instead of manufacturing.

What is the difference between a fishbone diagram and an Ishikawa diagram?

They are the same diagram. The fishbone diagram is named for its shape — a horizontal spine with diagonal bones — while the Ishikawa name honors Kaoru Ishikawa, the Japanese quality control engineer who popularized it in the 1960s at Kawasaki Heavy Industries. You will see both names used interchangeably in Six Sigma DMAIC training, ISO 9001 documentation, and quality management textbooks. This tool generates both, since they are visually identical.

What is end-cause (leaf-cause) analysis and how does this generator handle it?

End-cause analysis (sometimes called leaf-cause or terminal-cause analysis) is the practice of drilling each branch of a fishbone diagram down until every leaf is a single, verifiable root cause your team can actually check on the line or in the system. A general cause like 'training' is not a leaf — it needs to be broken into 'new operator onboarding skipped solder-paste-storage module' or similar. This generator drills three levels deep by default and labels each leaf so it maps cleanly onto a CAPA, an FMEA, or a Pareto chart.

Can I use a fishbone diagram outside of manufacturing?

Yes — and a large share of fishbone diagrams today are made outside the factory. Healthcare uses them for Joint Commission RCAs and FDA CAPAs. Software teams use them for blameless post-mortems and SEV-1 retrospectives. Service businesses use them for customer complaint analysis. Public health teams use them for outbreak investigations. Academic researchers use them as a brainstorming framework. The generator adapts category vocabulary and example causes to whichever industry you specify in the prompt.

How does a fishbone diagram compare to 5 Whys, FMEA, and Pareto?

A fishbone diagram is the brainstorming map — it lays out every plausible cause across categories. 5 Whys is the drill-down inside one cause — useful for chasing a single branch to its root. FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is the risk-scoring tool — it takes the causes you identified and ranks them by severity, occurrence, and detection. Pareto is the prioritization tool — it ranks causes by frequency or impact so you can attack the vital few. A mature Six Sigma DMAIC project uses all four: fishbone for the cause inventory, 5 Whys to drill leaves, FMEA to score, Pareto to prioritize.

How do I prioritize causes once the fishbone is drawn?

Once the fishbone is complete, ask the team to vote (multi-voting or N/3 voting) on the leaf causes most likely to be contributing. Score the top votes with FMEA's Risk Priority Number (Severity × Occurrence × Detection). Then chart frequency or impact in a Pareto and attack the top 20% of leaves that drive 80% of the effect. You can ask this generator to tag each leaf with severity (S1-S5), defect percentage, or owner — making the handoff to Pareto and FMEA painless.

What file formats can I export?

The free plan exports a 2K PNG with a small watermark. Paid plans export 4K PNG for projection, transparent PNG to drop into a CAPA report or Notion post-mortem, SVG for editing in Figma or Illustrator, and print-ready PDF for the war room wall. Each format is sized for quality reviews, audit packets, classroom worksheets, and clinical incident reports.

Is my problem statement kept confidential?

Problem statements you paste are sent to the AI generation backend only for the duration of the request. They are stored under your account so you can revisit the diagram later from history and re-run the analysis. We do not sell prompt data, do not share it with third parties for training, and you can delete any saved fishbone (and its prompt) from your account at any time. For highly sensitive incidents, paraphrase the problem before pasting and remove patient names, vendor names, or internal product codes.

Is the fishbone diagram generator free?

Sign-up is free and includes starter credits — enough to generate several Ishikawa diagrams without paying. Each generation uses credits, scaled to resolution. Monthly, yearly, and lifetime plans are available for quality engineers, patient safety teams, and SRE groups who run root cause analyses every week. Six Sigma trainers and university instructors qualify for the education discount.

AI Fishbone Diagram Generator

Fishbone Diagram Generator for Root Cause Analysis

Describe the problem you are investigating and the AI draws a labeled Ishikawa fishbone diagram with the 6M categories, mid-level causes, and end-cause (leaf-cause) branches — ready for Six Sigma DMAIC, ISO 9001 CAPAs, healthcare incident reviews, and software post-mortems.

6M categories auto-builtEnd-cause leaf branching4K PNG + transparent export

Fishbone Diagram Generator

Aspect Ratio

Quality

5 credits/generation

Free trial: 5 credits, 2K resolution with watermark

Ishikawa fishbone diagram for a PCB cold-solder defect with 6M categories and end-cause leaves

Example Fishbone Diagrams

Turn a Problem Statement Into a Fishbone Diagram

No sticky notes. No whiteboard. No drag-and-drop editor.

Stop redrawing the same Ishikawa skeleton in PowerPoint for every quality meeting. Type the problem you are investigating, name the categories you want (6M, 4P, 5M+1E, or your own), and the fishbone diagram generator returns a labeled diagram with mid-level causes and end-cause leaves — ready for Six Sigma DMAIC, ISO 9001 corrective action reports, Joint Commission RCAs, and software incident post-mortems.

Generate a Fishbone Free

Describe the Problem and the Context

Paste the problem statement: defect rate, customer complaint, schedule slippage, safety incident, outage report — up to about 5,000 characters. Add the framework you want (6M for manufacturing, 4P for marketing, 5M+1E for service, or a custom category list), the industry, and how deep you want the leaf-cause branching.

AI Builds the Ishikawa Skeleton and Drills Down

The generator draws the central spine pointing to the effect, branches the major bones into the categories you asked for, and writes mid-level causes on each bone. For each mid-level cause, it adds end-cause (leaf-cause) sub-branches until every leaf is a verifiable, single-point cause your team can check and assign as a CAPA.

Download a 4K PNG, Transparent PNG, or PDF

Export a 4K PNG for slide decks and quality review meetings, a transparent PNG to drop into a CAPA report or an audit packet, or a print-ready PDF for the war room. Pair the labeled answer key with a blank version for green belt training and student workshops.

One Fishbone Diagram Generator, Three Quality Workflows

Quality Engineers · Healthcare Safety Teams · SRE and Incident Responders

The same Ishikawa diagram generator handles a Six Sigma DMAIC project on a semiconductor line, a Joint Commission root cause analysis after a medication error, and a software post-incident review — without anyone redrawing the same fishbone skeleton in PowerPoint twice.

Quality Engineers and Six Sigma Belts

Green Belt, Black Belt, Master Black Belt

You can list the 6M categories in your sleep — you just need a labeled fishbone for the next DMAIC tollgate. Paste the problem statement, pick the framework (6M, 5M+1E, 4P), and get a Ishikawa diagram with end-cause leaf branches in 30 seconds.

6M, 5M+1E, 4P, and custom category frameworks supported
End-cause (leaf-cause) drilling down to verifiable single-point causes
Pairs with 5 Whys, FMEA, and Pareto in the same DMAIC project

Build Your First Fishbone

Healthcare Safety and Compliance Teams

Joint Commission RCA, ISO 9001, FDA 21 CFR

Patient safety committees and ISO 9001 auditors review a fishbone diagram on every CAPA. Generate the labeled Ishikawa for the incident report, a blank version for the after-action workshop, and a JCAHO-style RCA tree from the same problem statement.

Categories tuned for healthcare: People, Policies, Equipment, Environment, Materials, Measurement
Reads like a Joint Commission RCA or an FDA CAPA exhibit
Exports as transparent PNG to drop into the audit packet

Diagram a Safety Incident

SRE, DevOps, and Incident Responders

Post-incident reviews and blameless retrospectives

After an SEV-1, the incident commander needs a fishbone for the post-mortem doc by tomorrow. The fishbone diagram generator builds the Ishikawa for the outage in a minute — with branches for code, deploy, infra, dependencies, observability, and process — so the retro can focus on action items, not drawing skeletons.

Software-tuned categories: Code, Deploy, Infra, Dependencies, Observability, Process
Drops straight into Notion, Confluence, or a Markdown post-mortem
Pairs with 5 Whys for a blameless after-action review

Diagram a Post-Mortem

Fishbone Diagrams Generated by AI

Real quality problems, real Ishikawa diagrams

Every fishbone diagram below was generated from a plain-text problem statement plus a short category hint. Click any example to load the prompt and run your own root cause analysis.

PCB Solder-Joint Defect (6M)

Manufacturing line defect drilled into 6M categories with end-cause leaves

End-Cause Analysis SSL Outage

Software incident drilled three levels deep into leaf-cause branches

Hospital Medication Error RCA

Joint Commission-style RCA in healthcare categories

Restaurant Late Delivery (4P)

Service complaint mapped to People, Process, Place, Product

Construction Schedule Delay

Project delay with labor, equipment, materials, weather branches

Blank Worksheet for 6-Sigma Green Belt

Unlabeled fishbone skeleton with empty bones for student practice

What Makes This Fishbone Diagram Generator Different

Not Another Generic Ishikawa Template

Most online fishbone tools hand you a blank 6M template and a drag-and-drop canvas. This fishbone diagram generator reads your actual problem statement, picks the right category framework, drills each major bone into mid-level causes and end-cause leaves, and labels every line with terms your quality manager and Joint Commission auditor will recognize.

6M, 5M+1E, 4P, Or Your Own

Framework-Aware Branching

Pick the category framework that fits your domain. Manufacturing gets 6M (Man, Machine, Material, Method, Measurement, Mother Nature). Service operations get 4P (People, Process, Place, Product). Healthcare RCAs get People, Policies, Equipment, Environment, Materials, Measurement. Or list your own categories and the fishbone diagram generator builds the major bones around them.

Start free, scale when the CAPA backlog grows

Every account gets free credits on sign-up. Need more fishbone diagrams for a DMAIC project, a quarter of patient safety reviews, or a full incident-management binder? Pick a plan that fits how many root cause analyses your team runs each month.

Student or teacher? Apply for an education discount

Apply now

How Quality, Safety, and SRE Teams Actually Use It

Real feedback from Six Sigma engineers, healthcare patient safety officers, ISO auditors, SREs, and operations consultants who used to draw the same Ishikawa skeleton in PowerPoint twice a week.

Daniel Kovac

Six Sigma Black Belt, Tier-1 Auto Supplier

Every DMAIC tollgate review needs a fishbone. I used to redraw the same 6M skeleton in PowerPoint each week. Now I paste the problem statement, get the labeled Ishikawa with end-cause leaves, and walk into the gate review with a Pareto chart already in hand.

Dr. Priya Raghavan

Patient Safety Officer, Regional Health System

After a serious medication error we run a Joint Commission RCA in 48 hours. The fishbone diagram generator builds the people-policies-equipment-environment-materials-measurement skeleton in seconds, so the multidisciplinary team can spend the meeting on the actual leaf causes, not on the marker board.

Marcus Whitfield

Senior SRE, Fintech Platform

Blameless post-mortems live in Confluence. The transparent PNG drops straight into the doc with branches for code, deploy, infra, dependencies, observability, and process — and the leaf-cause level is exactly where our action items get tagged.

Daniel Kovac

Six Sigma Black Belt, Tier-1 Auto Supplier

Every DMAIC tollgate review needs a fishbone. I used to redraw the same 6M skeleton in PowerPoint each week. Now I paste the problem statement, get the labeled Ishikawa with end-cause leaves, and walk into the gate review with a Pareto chart already in hand.

Dr. Priya Raghavan

Patient Safety Officer, Regional Health System

After a serious medication error we run a Joint Commission RCA in 48 hours. The fishbone diagram generator builds the people-policies-equipment-environment-materials-measurement skeleton in seconds, so the multidisciplinary team can spend the meeting on the actual leaf causes, not on the marker board.

Marcus Whitfield

Senior SRE, Fintech Platform

Blameless post-mortems live in Confluence. The transparent PNG drops straight into the doc with branches for code, deploy, infra, dependencies, observability, and process — and the leaf-cause level is exactly where our action items get tagged.

Daniel Kovac

Six Sigma Black Belt, Tier-1 Auto Supplier

Every DMAIC tollgate review needs a fishbone. I used to redraw the same 6M skeleton in PowerPoint each week. Now I paste the problem statement, get the labeled Ishikawa with end-cause leaves, and walk into the gate review with a Pareto chart already in hand.

Dr. Priya Raghavan

Patient Safety Officer, Regional Health System

After a serious medication error we run a Joint Commission RCA in 48 hours. The fishbone diagram generator builds the people-policies-equipment-environment-materials-measurement skeleton in seconds, so the multidisciplinary team can spend the meeting on the actual leaf causes, not on the marker board.

Marcus Whitfield

Senior SRE, Fintech Platform

Blameless post-mortems live in Confluence. The transparent PNG drops straight into the doc with branches for code, deploy, infra, dependencies, observability, and process — and the leaf-cause level is exactly where our action items get tagged.

Daniel Kovac

Six Sigma Black Belt, Tier-1 Auto Supplier

Every DMAIC tollgate review needs a fishbone. I used to redraw the same 6M skeleton in PowerPoint each week. Now I paste the problem statement, get the labeled Ishikawa with end-cause leaves, and walk into the gate review with a Pareto chart already in hand.

Dr. Priya Raghavan

Patient Safety Officer, Regional Health System

After a serious medication error we run a Joint Commission RCA in 48 hours. The fishbone diagram generator builds the people-policies-equipment-environment-materials-measurement skeleton in seconds, so the multidisciplinary team can spend the meeting on the actual leaf causes, not on the marker board.

Marcus Whitfield

Senior SRE, Fintech Platform

Blameless post-mortems live in Confluence. The transparent PNG drops straight into the doc with branches for code, deploy, infra, dependencies, observability, and process — and the leaf-cause level is exactly where our action items get tagged.

Lena Hoffmann

ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Pharma Manufacturing

Auditors review every CAPA's root cause analysis. The Ishikawa diagram this generator produces reads like a textbook example — six bones, mid-level causes, leaf causes that map cleanly onto the corrective actions. My audit binder looks like an ISO training manual.

Ahmed Tariq

Plant Manager, Consumer Goods

Daily Gemba walk turns up a defect, and by the afternoon stand-up I need a fishbone on the war-room wall. End-cause branching tells the line lead exactly which leaf to verify on the next shift — no more 'because it's complicated' answers.

Sofia Lindqvist

Lean Black Belt and Operations Consultant

I run kaizen workshops at three different clients in a typical week. Different industries, different category frameworks. The fishbone diagram generator handles 6M for the factory, 4P for the service team, and a custom category list for the hospital — without me redrawing skeletons between flights.

Lena Hoffmann

ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Pharma Manufacturing

Auditors review every CAPA's root cause analysis. The Ishikawa diagram this generator produces reads like a textbook example — six bones, mid-level causes, leaf causes that map cleanly onto the corrective actions. My audit binder looks like an ISO training manual.

Ahmed Tariq

Plant Manager, Consumer Goods

Daily Gemba walk turns up a defect, and by the afternoon stand-up I need a fishbone on the war-room wall. End-cause branching tells the line lead exactly which leaf to verify on the next shift — no more 'because it's complicated' answers.

Sofia Lindqvist

Lean Black Belt and Operations Consultant

I run kaizen workshops at three different clients in a typical week. Different industries, different category frameworks. The fishbone diagram generator handles 6M for the factory, 4P for the service team, and a custom category list for the hospital — without me redrawing skeletons between flights.

Lena Hoffmann

ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Pharma Manufacturing

Auditors review every CAPA's root cause analysis. The Ishikawa diagram this generator produces reads like a textbook example — six bones, mid-level causes, leaf causes that map cleanly onto the corrective actions. My audit binder looks like an ISO training manual.

Ahmed Tariq

Plant Manager, Consumer Goods

Daily Gemba walk turns up a defect, and by the afternoon stand-up I need a fishbone on the war-room wall. End-cause branching tells the line lead exactly which leaf to verify on the next shift — no more 'because it's complicated' answers.

Sofia Lindqvist

Lean Black Belt and Operations Consultant

I run kaizen workshops at three different clients in a typical week. Different industries, different category frameworks. The fishbone diagram generator handles 6M for the factory, 4P for the service team, and a custom category list for the hospital — without me redrawing skeletons between flights.

Lena Hoffmann

ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Pharma Manufacturing

Auditors review every CAPA's root cause analysis. The Ishikawa diagram this generator produces reads like a textbook example — six bones, mid-level causes, leaf causes that map cleanly onto the corrective actions. My audit binder looks like an ISO training manual.

Ahmed Tariq

Plant Manager, Consumer Goods

Daily Gemba walk turns up a defect, and by the afternoon stand-up I need a fishbone on the war-room wall. End-cause branching tells the line lead exactly which leaf to verify on the next shift — no more 'because it's complicated' answers.

Sofia Lindqvist

Lean Black Belt and Operations Consultant

I run kaizen workshops at three different clients in a typical week. Different industries, different category frameworks. The fishbone diagram generator handles 6M for the factory, 4P for the service team, and a custom category list for the hospital — without me redrawing skeletons between flights.

Professor Helen Yoshida

Industrial Engineering Professor, State University

My green belt class needs a labeled fishbone AND a blank worksheet for the lab. Same prompt, two versions — one for the lecture slide, one for the homework. My TAs no longer redraw five worksheets a week.

Carlos Mendoza

Operations Manager, National Restaurant Chain

Customer complaints stack up by Friday. I plug each one into the 4P fishbone — People, Process, Place, Product — and bring the diagrams to the franchise call. Leaf-cause analysis turns a 'food was cold' complaint into three actionable line items.

Dr. James Ouedraogo

Public Health Consultant, WHO Field Office

Outbreak investigations need a quick cause map for the team briefing. I describe the incident, pick the categories — agent, host, environment, behavior, system, surveillance — and a fishbone goes into the situation report by lunchtime.

Professor Helen Yoshida

Industrial Engineering Professor, State University

My green belt class needs a labeled fishbone AND a blank worksheet for the lab. Same prompt, two versions — one for the lecture slide, one for the homework. My TAs no longer redraw five worksheets a week.

Carlos Mendoza

Operations Manager, National Restaurant Chain

Customer complaints stack up by Friday. I plug each one into the 4P fishbone — People, Process, Place, Product — and bring the diagrams to the franchise call. Leaf-cause analysis turns a 'food was cold' complaint into three actionable line items.

Dr. James Ouedraogo

Public Health Consultant, WHO Field Office

Outbreak investigations need a quick cause map for the team briefing. I describe the incident, pick the categories — agent, host, environment, behavior, system, surveillance — and a fishbone goes into the situation report by lunchtime.

Professor Helen Yoshida

Industrial Engineering Professor, State University

My green belt class needs a labeled fishbone AND a blank worksheet for the lab. Same prompt, two versions — one for the lecture slide, one for the homework. My TAs no longer redraw five worksheets a week.

Carlos Mendoza

Operations Manager, National Restaurant Chain

Customer complaints stack up by Friday. I plug each one into the 4P fishbone — People, Process, Place, Product — and bring the diagrams to the franchise call. Leaf-cause analysis turns a 'food was cold' complaint into three actionable line items.

Dr. James Ouedraogo

Public Health Consultant, WHO Field Office

Outbreak investigations need a quick cause map for the team briefing. I describe the incident, pick the categories — agent, host, environment, behavior, system, surveillance — and a fishbone goes into the situation report by lunchtime.

Professor Helen Yoshida

Industrial Engineering Professor, State University

My green belt class needs a labeled fishbone AND a blank worksheet for the lab. Same prompt, two versions — one for the lecture slide, one for the homework. My TAs no longer redraw five worksheets a week.

Carlos Mendoza

Operations Manager, National Restaurant Chain

Customer complaints stack up by Friday. I plug each one into the 4P fishbone — People, Process, Place, Product — and bring the diagrams to the franchise call. Leaf-cause analysis turns a 'food was cold' complaint into three actionable line items.

Dr. James Ouedraogo

Public Health Consultant, WHO Field Office

Outbreak investigations need a quick cause map for the team briefing. I describe the incident, pick the categories — agent, host, environment, behavior, system, surveillance — and a fishbone goes into the situation report by lunchtime.

Fishbone Diagram Generator — Common Questions

FAQ

Your First Fishbone Diagram, Free

Paste any problem statement — defect rate, schedule slip, safety incident, or outage. Get a labeled Ishikawa fishbone with 6M categories and end-cause leaves in 30 seconds. No PowerPoint redraws, no whiteboard markers, no credit card.

Generate a Fishbone Now See Pricing Plans