ARCHIWUM WIEDZY INŻYNIERSKIEJ TOM 8 NR 1 (2023) 6-8

ARCHIVES OF ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE VOL. 8 ISSUE 1 (2023) 6-8

ARCHIWUM WIEDZY INŻYNIERSKIEJ ISSN 2544-2449

ARCHIVES OF ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE
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Implementation of Fishbone Diagram by Cause & Effect

Analysis for Construction Projects
Wdrożenie diagramu rybiej ości poprzez analizę
przyczynowo-skutkową dla projektów budowlanych
Burak Ozan Kaya1
1Hacettepe University, Universiteler 06800 Cankaya/Ankara, Turkey, [email protected]

Abstract: This study aims to practice the implementation of the Fishbone Diagram for Cause & Effect Analysis and prove the validity of the
technique’s usability in any construction project to increase productivity for both construction managers and engineers. In every sub-branch
of the given Fishbone Diagram, possible failures might be expected to occur unless necessary precautions are taken. The failures, emerge as
significant problems and range from possible delays to product quality deficiencies which would affect the acceptance of the project from
customers.
During the creation of the Fishbone Diagram, the obtained results show us that possible delays are co-existing among each of the 5 M's.
Fishbone Diagram in the study also points out there are common issues and similarities between Men and Machine since both 2 M’s lead to
progress in a construction project and are interdependent.
As a result of this study, usage of Fishbone Diagram Technique demonstrated the possible connections between M’s and determination of the
Cause & Effect relations in a construction project. Findings of this study proved that usage of Cause & Effect Analysis in construction pro-
jects is also practical to determine the key points of a construction and interdependent factors.
Key words: Fishbone Diagram, Construction, Construction Project Management, Quality Management, Ishikawa Diagram, The 5M’s

1. Introduction intense, so the construction enterprises should establish the cost,

progress, quality of the system management concept, then system-
The Fishbone diagram (also called the Ishikawa diagram) is a ized the enterprise cost, progress and quality management work as
tool for identifying the root causes of quality problems. It was a project and emphasize the overall.[2]
named after Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese quality control statistician, Quality measures are a well-known part of the maintaining
the man who pioneered the use of this chart in the 1960's (Juran, construction success. “Quality is one of the critical factors in the
1999).[1] success of construction projects. Quality of construction projects,
Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram mainly represents a model of as well as project success, can be regarded as the fulfilment of
suggestive presentation for the correlations between an event (ef- expectations (i.e. the satisfaction) of the project participants.” [5]
fect) and its multiple happening causes. The structure provided by As it was pointed out in the past studies about this subject,
the diagram helps team members think in a very systematic way. maintaining quality standards plays a huge role for companies to
Some of the benefits of constructing a Fishbone diagram are that it achieve expectations of the customer. One of the known quality
helps determine the root causes of a problem or quality characteris- tools, fishbone diagram, will be examined in this study for usage
tic using a structured approach, encourages group participation and validity.
utilizes group knowledge of the process, identifies areas where data In this study, an example Cause & Effect Analysis via Fish-
should be collected for further study.[1] bone Diagram will be used to determine the possible risks for
As in many different professions, civil engineering is one of project acceptance and examine the sub information we will obtain
the fields that apply management related techniques to increase by using the Cause & Effect Analysis. Based on the cause-effect
productivity and efficiency of mainly the cost and time of a con- relationships in the bones of the diagram, examination of the use-
struction project. Construction project management is a known fulness of Fishbone Diagram in construction projects will be made
discipline which often involves working in materials, workforce, and findings and doctrines will be discussed.
time and cost management of construction projects. This study will also include the causes of the delays in the
The essential factors for the survival and development of construction projects. Delays in construction projects are known
construction enterprises include focus on construction project issue in the construction industries and negatively affecting the
management, improve project quality, ensure project progress, companies itself and the industry indirectly.
reduce project cost and improve economic efficiency. The con- (Ramanathan,2012) described the negative effects of the con-
struction market is fully open and the market competition is more struction project as; “To the owner, delay means loss of revenue

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through non availability of production facilities and entable space period, higher material costs through inflation, and due to labour
or a dependence on present facilities. In some cases, delay causes cost increases.” [6]
higher overhead costs to the contractor because of longer work

Fig. 1. Fishbone Diagram to determine possible failures to be used in an example Construction Project

2. Experimental

In this study, to prove and set an example for the applicabil-

ity of the Cause & Effect Analysis in construction projects, an
example Fishbone Diagram made for “Project Acceptance '' will be
examined. In this imaginary presentation, The Fishbone Diagram is
constructed to present to the company to identify possible problems
for project acceptance and brainstorm on possible solutions. The
Fishbone diagram given in Figure 1 above is made from anony-
mous engineering experiences to prove the applicability of the
Cause & Effect Analysis in construction projects. The Fishbone
Diagram is designed to present 5M’s which is Measurement,
Method, Money, Machine and Men. The sub branches of each
factor leads to more specific points about main factors.
In order to prove the Fishbone Diagram’s suitability for all
possible occasions, the Figure 1 is designed in such a way to satisfy
any possible high expectations. As is known in the civil engineer-
ing industry, the customer can be even the government itself and Fig. 2. Branches in the context of method
the project might be designed to serve the whole locals or country’s As it can be seen in the example sub branch, the Figure 2
vital aspects like logistics, trade etc. In such vital projects, satisfac- above examines the possible project acceptance obstacles in the
tion of the customer is expected to be compelling and the examina- context of “Method”. “Method” in a construction project can vary
tion of possible reasons to cause dissatisfaction should be prevent- from designing practices to application of regulations and man-
ed. In this study, Cause & Effect Analysis is imagined in a rigorous agement methods. The possible issues get more specified with the
way to abide strict regulations and to achieve a high satisfaction deepness of the bones and each upper branch comprises sub-
level. Importance of customer satisfaction is defined by (Sami branches. Each sub-branch is relevant to possible real-life issues
Kärnä,2004) as “Customer satisfaction has become one of the key that can be seen in the construction industry and written from
issues for companies in their efforts to improve quality in the com- anonymous research made from different engineers’ knowledge
petitive marketplace. It can be seen as either a goal of or a meas- and past experiences.
urement tool in the development of construction quality.” [7] The given issues in branches represent possible obstacles be-
fore the acceptance of the project. To achieve the purpose of this

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study, examination of the given diagram and measurement of the By the examination of Figure 1, even though possible
diagram’s usefulness will lead us to verify the usability of the equipment issues are mostly a “Machine” related concern, condi-
diagram and determine the by-inferences of the diagram’s usage. In tions of equipment in construction sites have significant connection
this study, cause and effect analysis will focus on project ac- with other factors such as Men and Measurement. We can expect
ceptance over different contexts as 5 M’s. possible problems led by lack and failures in equipment due to its
Fishbone diagram has multiple functions that can be applied connection with other factors.
in manufacturing, sales process, and marketing aspects. Each cate-
gory has different characteristics. The fishbone diagram used in 4. Summary and conclusions
this research is manufacturing type while the most popular content
in manufacturing is “5Ms”; methods, machines, materials, meas- In our study, an example Fishbone Diagram was examined
urements and man. [4] for the purpose of validation of the cause and effect analysis for
The necessity of accurate problem determination in construc- project managers in the construction industry. In our Fishbone
tion projects comes from the importance of project management in Diagram, we identified the failure predecessors and their possible
construction projects. effects on construction project’s acceptability.
Project success depends on project management success and During the creation process of the diagram, due to the re-
the success of the end-product. This represents the micro and mac- search’s nature, we identified around 80 causes and effects affects
ro perspective of project success, the boundary of which inspires the acceptability of the project. As a side learning in this study, we
polarized reactions. Project success is influenced by many different discovered reasons of failure generalized for an overall construc-
factors, outside the control of project management.[3] tion project.
As given in (Al-Hajj, Zraunig 2018), project management With the examination of the diagram, our study showed us
practices in construction projects are unable to identify each of that by the usage of the cause and effect analysis, it is possible to
every factor affecting the projects’ success or acceptability. The determine the problems as the main purpose and obtain indirect
Fishbone Diagram designed for this study is an example for an inferences.
ideal gap filler for the exigency in projects. Every given sub branch Examinations made showed us that cause and effect analysis
is relatable for non-theoretical real-life problem occurrences which by Fishbone Diagram is possibly beneficial for companies’ man-
is vital for problem identification and taking the necessary steps for agement related problem-solving processes.
solving the problems. By the results of this study, it can be deduced that solving
some of the points which are connected by different factors identi-
3. Results and discussion fied with the Fishbone Diagram can make a significant contribution
to the progress of the project. Vital aspects like delays in projects
During the research process of this study, in every main fac- can be avoided with the cause and effect analysis and creating
tor (M’s) of the diagram, the “Delays” sub branch was observed solutions for these causes.
due to deadline expectations of customers due to the nature of the
construction industry. In the diagram made, even though the possi- Literature
ble issues are designed as to be relevant with concerns of the cus-
tomer, results of the research for subbranches shows us the compa- [1] Ilie G. and. Ciocoiu C.N. APPLICATION OF FISHBONE
ny’s concerns implicitly affects the final product and therefore the DIAGRAM TO DETERMINE THE RISK OF AN EVENT WITH
concerns of the customer. MULTIPLE CAUSES MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND
Results from the M’s Men and Machine shows us that these PRACTICE Vol. 2 Issue 1 (2010) p: 1- 20
[2] Wanqing Song, et al. Project Management. (2017); 1(1): 22–29.
two different factors are connected to each other and deficiency in
[3] Assem Al-Hajj and Mario M. Zraunig, The Impact of Project
one of them significantly affects the other. This inference obtained Management Implementation on the Successful Completion of
from identification of possible issues proves that workforce and Projects in Construction. Vol. 9, No. 1, February 2018
machine are key points in a construction and interdependent. [4] Dimas Budi Septiawan and Rudy Bekti, ANALYSIS OF
Moreover, the inference proves us usage of Cause & Effect Analy- PROJECT CONSTRUCTION DELAY USING FISHBONE
sis via Fishbone Diagram in construction projects can lead to de- DIAGRAM AT, Vol. 5, No. 5, 2016
termination of interrelations between different factors. Similar [5] D.Ashokkumar, Study of Quality Management in Construction
observations are also possible to notice between Method and Industry, International Journal of Innovative Research in Science,
Volume 3, Special Issue 1, February 2014
Measurement, Measurement and Machine etc.
[6] Ramanathan, Cet al. (2012) ‘Construction delays causing risks on
Usage of cause and effect analysis proved us that, with usage time and cost –a critical review’, Australasian Journal of Construc-
of cause and effect analysis by Fishbone Diagram it is possible to tion Economics and Building,12(1) 37-57
determine by-inferences as much as the possible causes to affect [7] Sami Kärnä, Analysing customer satisfaction and quality in con-
project acceptance. Presentation of such phenomenon to brainstorm struction the case of public and private customers, Nordic Journal
purposes and problem-root determining will increase the problem- of Surveying and Real Estate Research, Special Series, Vol. 2
solving skills of the company and increase productivity. (2004)
By examining the example diagram Figure 1, it is possible to [8] Susil Kumara Silva, Prof. Warnakulasuriya, Dr. Arachchige, Criti-
cal Success Factors: En Route for Success of Construction Pro-
determine the key points with most effects to project’s success by
jects, International Journal of Business and Social Science
common branches in different M’s. Vol. 7, No. 3; March 2016
Importance of the identification of the such possible failures
comes up as this point. Impact of failures in construction industry
is defined by (Kumara, 2015) as “As Construction project failures
are increasingly reported around the globe and achieving success of
construction projects is becoming extremely difficult in today’s
turbulent environment.” [8]

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