Greenway Logistics late deliveries
Fishbone diagram slide with six cause families
A fishbone diagram earns its place when the effect at the head is a measured number and each bone carries causes rather than blame. This one lays out why deliveries run late on the northern run at Greenway Logistics, a fictional carrier.
What is on the slide
- The effect at the head
- 18% late deliveries, stated as a measured rate rather than as a complaint about lateness.
- People and Process
- No relief driver pool; induction takes 5 weeks. Cut off moved to 4pm; pick list printed late.
- Equipment and Materials
- Servicing booked reactively; no spare tail lift. Supplier splits deliveries; no inbound check.
- Environment and Measurement
- One drain, no grate; storms shut the ramp. Scan happens on return; no customer time stamp.
- Shape
- A horizontal spine runs to an arrow head carrying the effect, with three bones angled above it and three below, each holding two causes.
When this is the right slide
A six bone fishbone suits a root cause session where several unrelated causes are in play at once and the group needs to see the whole field before choosing which chain to follow.
What to swap it for
Grouping: 5 Whys Vertical. Swap to the five whys layout once the group has picked one cause and needs to walk a single chain down to something that can actually be changed.
What this slide shows
A title reads Why Deliveries Run Late, with a framing line naming six cause families behind the late rate on the Greenway Logistics northern run, reviewed with the drivers. The diagram is a horizontal spine running left to right into an arrow head, with a panel at the head carrying the effect: 18% late deliveries. Three bones angle up from the spine and three angle down, each labelled with a cause family and carrying two causes on short branches. People: no relief driver pool; induction takes 5 weeks. Process: cut off moved to 4pm; pick list printed late. Equipment: servicing booked reactively; no spare tail lift. Materials: supplier splits deliveries; no inbound check. Environment: one drain, no grate; storms shut the ramp. Measurement: scan happens on return; no customer time stamp. The three upper family labels sit above their bones and the three lower ones below, so the diagram reads as a fish skeleton with the problem as the head.
When this is the right slide
Use it at the start of a root cause investigation, when the group knows the effect and nobody yet agrees on the cause. Quality investigations, incident reviews, service failures and recurring operational problems all fit, particularly where several unrelated conditions combine. The diagram's strength is coverage: six families force a wide search before anyone commits to a theory. It is the wrong slide once the cause is known, because drawing twelve causes to explain something already understood wastes a session. It is also the wrong shape for a single chain of causation, where each answer leads to one further question; that is what a five whys drilldown is for, and the two are usually run in sequence rather than instead of each other.
How to adapt it
First, write the effect as a measured rate with a boundary. 18% late deliveries on the northern run is testable; poor delivery performance is not, and the difference decides whether the session produces work or opinions. Second, fill every family even when one looks thin, because the empty bone is usually where the surprise is. Measurement produced the best cause here: late is counted when the van returns to the depot, which means the rate itself may be wrong. Third, run the session with the people who do the work, and say so on the slide. Reviewed with the drivers tells a reader where the causes came from, and it is also the difference between a diagram that survives contact with the depot and one that does not. Once the group picks the chain worth pursuing, the five whys layout walks it down to something that can be changed.
What makes this slide work
The head carries a measured effect
18% late deliveries, not deliveries are late. A rate means the same group can tell whether anything improved after the work, and it sets the size of the problem before the causes are discussed. Fishbones that start from a complaint tend to end in a list of grievances, because there is nothing to test a cause against.
Six standard families keep the search wide
People, process, equipment, materials, environment and measurement. Using the conventional set stops a group from spending the whole session on the two causes it already suspected. Measurement in particular is the family teams forget, and here it produces the most interesting bone: late is counted at the depot rather than at the customer.
Every cause is a condition, not a person
No relief driver pool, induction takes five weeks, servicing booked reactively. Each is something the business arranged and can rearrange. A bone that named a shift supervisor would end the analysis, because the conversation would move to performance management and the other five families would never be examined.
Questions people ask
How many cause families should a fishbone carry?
Four to six, and this one uses six. The standard set of people, process, equipment, materials, environment and measurement suits most operational problems. Manufacturing often uses the six Ms and services often substitute policies or place, but the number matters more than the names: fewer than four narrows the search and more than six will not fit legibly.
How many causes belong on each bone?
Two or three. The diagram is a map of where to look, not a full findings document, and a bone with six branches stops being readable at presentation size. If one family genuinely has six causes, that is a signal it deserves its own investigation rather than a crowded bone on a shared slide.
What is the relationship between a fishbone and the five whys?
They run in sequence. The fishbone widens the search across several families so nothing obvious is missed; the five whys then takes one cause and drills it down to something the organisation can change. Using only the fishbone tends to produce twelve causes and no action, and using only the five whys risks drilling the wrong chain.
Should causes name people?
No. A cause should be a condition the business arranged, such as induction taking five weeks or servicing being booked reactively. Naming an individual ends the analysis, because the group moves to performance management and stops examining the system. It also makes the next session harder, since nobody volunteers a cause that might land on a colleague.
What effect belongs at the head of the diagram?
One measured outcome with a scope. Eighteen per cent late deliveries on a named run gives the group something to test improvements against. Two effects at the head, or a vague one such as customer dissatisfaction, produce bones that belong to different problems and a diagram that cannot be acted on.
How should a fishbone slide be presented out loud?
State the effect and the period it covers, then walk the two families the group thinks matter most and say which one is being taken to a five whys. The full diagram is a reference. Reading all twelve causes takes several minutes and leaves no time for the decision about which chain to follow.
Build your own in about a minute
The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.
Make one like thisOther slide examples
Eisenhower matrix slide with twelve tasks sorted
An Eisenhower matrix is only honest when the delegate quadrant has names attached to it, because otherwise everything drifts back into do. This one sorts a week of jobs for the operations team at Coastal Removals, a fictional removals company.
Risk matrix slide with eight risks and an owner on each
A risk matrix answers a different question from a risk register: it shows which risks demand action now, not the full list with controls and dates. This one covers a March festival run by Southbank Events, a fictional event company.
Gap analysis slide from current score to target
A gap analysis slide shows where an organisation is, where it has committed to be and how far apart the two are, measured on the same scale. This one scores five digital capabilities at Wyncliffe Aged Care, a fictional provider, from an average of 2.2 out of 5 today to 3.8 by June 2028.
Want the steps in the builder? Read Add charts, maps and diagrams to slides, then Style text and add callouts, stats and lists. For everything this generator can do, see the slide maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .