Fishbone diagrams break a problem into categories of causes. People tend to work better when they can break their thoughts down into smaller compartments.
On the shop floor, people often use the 6 M’s as a way to categorize the causes of the problems they are trying to solve.

This term comes from our Continuous Improvement Companion, our online reference guide available at https://www.velaction.com/lean-dictionary/. The 6 M’s term is at https://www.velaction.com/6-ms/.