Which diagram is used to illustrate the relationship between causes and potential problems?

The Ishikawa diagram, also known as the fishbone diagram, is designed specifically to identify and illustrate the relationship between causes and potential problems in a structured way. It allows teams to visually map out various factors that could lead to a specific issue, facilitating a deeper understanding of the root causes. By breaking down the problem into categories—such as people, processes, materials, and environment—this diagram helps teams focus on the underlying issues that contribute to a problem, making it an essential tool for root cause analysis.

In contrast, a flowchart visually represents a process or workflow, providing a step-by-step guide of actions rather than exploring causes of problems. A Pareto chart is a bar graph that prioritizes problems based on their frequency or impact, helping to identify the most significant issues but not directly linking causes to these problems in the same way as the Ishikawa diagram. A Gantt chart is used for project management to illustrate the timeline of tasks and their dependencies, which does not address the causative relationships in the context of problem-solving. Therefore, the Ishikawa diagram is the most suitable choice for illustrating the relationship between causes and potential problems.