Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 18

Cause & Effect Matrix

Overview

The C & E (Cause & Effect) Matrix can prioritize the potential causes and determine the top few causes to focus on. This matrix is typically used when you want to focus on the most important potential causes - typically after a brainstorming session to identify a comprehensive list of all possible potential causes.

This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Project and then selecting Cause and Effect > C&E Matrix.

Inputs

Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
inputs
1
Rating Scale: Specify the rating scale you would like to use for the cause-and-effect matrix. The available options are:
OptionDescription
1-5Use a 1-5 scale for the rating matrix
1-10Use a 1-10 scale for the rating matrix.
1,3,9Use a 1-3-9 scale for the rating matrix. This is the default setting.
2
Num Causes: Specify the number of causes you want to use in your analysis. This information is used to format the worksheet and determine the number of rows in your input table.
3
Num Effects: The number of effects or columns to include in the analysis. This information is used to reformat the worksheet, and the columns are only displayed as required by the analysis.
4
Num Causes to Highlight: The number of causes to highlight in the analysis. The top-ranked causes are highlighted in this analysis.
5
View Example: Click on this button to open the example file. You can view the example to get an idea of how to fill out this tool, or you can use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your project needs.
6
Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
7
Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes and exit this dialog box.
8
Create Design: If this is your first time using this template, click this button to format the worksheet template. You can also update the worksheet format any time, but remember that you may lose any data entered on this worksheet. Once you are happy with the worksheet template layout, you must enter any required data on the worksheet. When the data entered into the worksheet is complete, you can click on Analysis Setup and then Compute Outputs to generate analysis results.
9
Analyze Design: Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis. Review the results of your analysis and make changes to your inputs if required to update analysis results.

Charts

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Charts button. Charts
1
Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your title, you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
2
Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your subtitle, specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
3
X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the x-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
4
Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the y-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
5
X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled, and you cannot change this setting.
6
Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum y-axis is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional.
7
Horizontal Lines: You can specify the values here to add a few horizontal reference lines to your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15, two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15, respectively. Note that this input is optional.
8
Vertical Lines: You can specify the values here to add a few extra vertical reference lines to your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5, two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5, respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Worksheet

Enter the following information on the worksheet:
  • Enter the row number and all the potential causes. These causes typically would come from a fishbone diagram.
  • Enter the evaluation criteria or the effects. These are usually the primary and secondary metrics for your project.
  • Enter an importance rating for each effect on a scale of 1-10.
  • Rate each input (cause) for each of the output indicators (effects) on a forced ranking scale of 0-1-3-5-9. The forced ranking scale ensures greater differences in the output scores between causes.

Verify

If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. Verify The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green-colored checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red-colored cross. The verification checks are shown in the orange exclamation mark if the verification checks result in a warning. Finally, any checks required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
1
Item: The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
2
Status: The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
3
Overall Status: The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.

Outputs

Click on Compute Outputs to update the output calculations. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below. outputs The following message is displayed upon successful completion of this analysis: Output Message The C & E matrix outputs are displayed on the worksheet's output area, and a Pareto chart of the output scores is also displayed. A summary of the analysis is also listed in the conclusion box.

You can use the 80-20 rule to select the vital few potential causes that impact the output metrics. The total score indicates which Key Process Input Variable (KPIV) input ranks higher and is more important than the other inputs. Use the Pareto chart to select the most critical inputs contributing to the output metric.

Notes

Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
  • This analysis is based on team perception, which may not be a reality, so unless you validate your causes with data, you cannot call them root causes.

Examples

The following examples are in the Examples folder.
  • Use the Cause & Effect matrix to determine the ranked list of potential causes for why the sales are low. (CE Matrix 1.xlsx)