Affinity Diagram

AffinJoseph Griffin

16 July 2012

Week 1

Week One Quality Tools Paper

Affinity Diagrams

Within the professional world there are many tools that we use to measure the effectiveness and advantages and disadvantages of certain decisions. By using these tools we can produce more effective results and better determine the desired path to a certain result. In this week’s quality tool paper we will take a look at the affinity diagram. The affinity diagram is a quality tool that gathers a wide amount of information from different issues, opinions, and ideas and groups them into categories based on what are known as natural relationships (Brassard, 1989). An affinity diagram is typically used in a situation in which there are an abundance of unknowns, such as a disorganized or confusing situation. An Affinity diagram is particularly useful when you want to sift through large amounts of data or when encouraging new methods of thinking (Pidoco, 2011). Affinity diagrams are, however, used primarily with large amounts of data and should be refrained from use when sorting through a small amount of information. The affinity process, unlike other processes, is aimed to be used by a group or team within the professional context. By using this process in a group we can gather different opinions and perspectives from various team members and use the different strengths that each member brings to develop a solid process.

The affinity process can be broken down easily into 5 steps. First part, like many others, is to generate ideas. This part of the process is generally known as brainstorming and is used to generate a list of ideas. It is often a good idea to write these different ideas down to ease with the affinity diagram later on. Secondly the ideas should be displayed whether on a board or laid out on a table for all the members to see. Next, the team will categorize the ideas into related groups. This part is made easier when the brainstorming ideas are...