


It was created in the 1960s by Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita. This idea creation method taps a team’s creativity and intuition. After generating ideas, group them according to their affinity, or similarity. It is used to generate, organize, and consolidate information related to a product, process, complex issue, or problem. The affinity diagram organizes a large number of ideas into their natural relationships. The Most Essential 7 management and planning tools What is an Affinity Diagram? Process decision tree: Systematically identifies what might go wrong in a plan under development.Arrow diagram: Shows the required order of tasks in a project or process, the best schedule for the entire project, and potential scheduling and resource problems and their solutions.A prioritization matrix is an L-shaped matrix that uses pairwise comparisons of a list of options to a set of criteria to choose the best option(s). Matrix data analysis: A complex mathematical technique for analyzing matrices, often replaced by a similar prioritization matrix.

L Shaped Matrix diagram: Shows the relationship between two, three, or four groups of information and can give information about the relationship, such as its strength, the roles played by various individuals, or measurements.Tree diagram: Breaks down broad categories into finer and finer levels of detail, helping to move step-by-step thinking from generalities to specifics.Interrelationship diagram: Shows cause-and-effect relationships and helps analyze the natural links between different aspects of a complex situation.Affinity diagram Organizes a large number of ideas into their natural relationships.These 7 Management and Planning tools are: However, they were assembled as a set of techniques for achieving efficiencies in the planning and management of operations. These tools were developed independently for diverse purposes. This toolset can be used to encourage innovation, facilitate communication, and help for planning in a team approach. The seven management and planning tools were the result of operations research and TQM in Japan after World War II in the 1970s.
