The Seven Management and Planning Tools

The seven management and planning tools (7 M&P tools) complement the classic seven quality tools (7 QC tools). While the 7 QC tools deal with data, the 7 M&P tools deal with language data — ideas, plans, and relationships.

The seven tools

#	Tool	Purpose
1	Affinity diagram	Organize a large number of ideas or issues into related groups
2	Relations diagram	Show cause-and-effect relationships among complex issues; find root causes
3	Tree diagram	Break a goal into tasks and subtasks in a hierarchical structure
4	Matrix diagram	Show relationships between two sets of items; used in QFD
5	Arrow diagram	Show task sequencing and critical path (similar to PERT/CPM network)
6	PDPC (Process Decision Program Chart)	Anticipate problems in a plan and prepare countermeasures
7	Matrix data analysis	Analyze relationships among many variables — the only tool that uses quantitative data (similar to PCA)

CQE exam tips

The affinity diagram starts with brainstorming and groups ideas silently — participants move sticky notes without discussion.
The relations diagram (also called interrelationship digraph) shows which issues cause others — the item with the most outgoing arrows is likely the root cause driver.
Matrix data analysis is the only one of the seven that uses quantitative data; it is rarely the answer unless quantitative analysis is explicitly described.

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