Blue Martini Lounge is a chain of four martini bars located across Florida. The company offers a large assortment of martinis as well as a variety of appetizers and light snacks, to its customers. The organization has focused its competitive efforts on providing the highest quality experience and customer service to its guests ("Blue Martini", 2006). For this reason, improving processes within the organization is critical to their success.
             One quality tool that is recommended for use by Blue Martini Lounge is an Ishikawa diagram. "The Ishikawa diagram was developed by Kaoru Ishikawa in 1982 and qualitatively determines root causes of the problem (or effect) being examined" (Kelley, 2000, p. 30). By utilizing the Ishikawa diagram, Blue Martini Lounge will be able to visually evaluate what factors may truly be underlying a challenge they are having. The challenge that will be evaluated, and thus the focus of the process that needs to be improved, is the occurrence of occasional long waits for customers to have their drink and/or food orders taken.
             The first step of the Ishikawa diagram is to draw an arrow pointing to the problem being investigated. Next, the potential causes of the effect are branched off the arrow's shaft. Secondary causes to the primary cause are then branched off that. These causes are then discussed to determine which are the underlying ones creating the challenge. Measurements are then designed to determine if changes that are going to be implemented are successful (Kelley, 2000, p. 30).
             In the instance of Blue Martini's effect of an unacceptable wait time for customers to place their orders, the primary cause is staffing. Secondary causes to staffing may include, understaffing, ineffective training on customer service of staff, and poor staffing assignment design. Blue Martini may simply be understaffed during the times when speed of customer order taken ...