AKA | Abstraction Process |
Classification | Evaluating/Selecting (ES) |
A linking diagram helps a team to narrow down an important issue, problem, or situation by listing all the factors that need to be considered and linked to a particular department or business unit for corrective or process improvement action. Importance weighting is often used to prioritize listed factors.
To narrow down complex issues into related and contributing factors for analysis.
To link potential action to organizational units responsible for completing the action.
To group business units that control a particular process.
→ | Select and define problem or opportunity |
→ | Identify and analyze causes or potential change |
Develop and plan possible solutions or change | |
Implement and evaluate solution or change | |
Measure and report solution or change results | |
Recognize and reward team efforts |
Research/statistics | |
Creativity/innovation | |
1 | Engineering |
Project management | |
2 | Manufacturing |
3 | Marketing/sales |
Administration/documentation | |
4 | Servicing/support |
5 | Customer/quality metrics |
Change management |
before
Brainstorming
Surveying
Attribute Listing
Interview Technique
Benchmarking
after
SWOT analysis
Gap Analysis
Force Field Analysis
Barriers-and-Aids Analysis
Cost-Benefit Analysis
To indicate importance, value, or any other factor, a weight can be assigned to each element. Typically, scale of weight is 1–5 or 1–10, 10 being the highest rating.
STEP 1 A problem, issue, or condition is written on a whiteboard or flip chart.
STEP 2 The team narrows down the problem, issue, or condition by identifying potential action items or solutions. See example Goal—Increase Market Share by 25 Percent.
STEP 3 Next, participants rate the items (objectives) by their importance. The scale for weighting is usually 1-10, 10 being most important.
STEP 4 Once all of the factors have been listed, organizational units are identified that are directly involved in the completion or supporting of an action item.
STEP 5 Finally, a line is drawn to link involved organizational units to specific factors (items). This will provide some idea of complexity and resource requirement.
STEP 6 The completed linking diagram is checked for completeness and accuracy and then dated.