The Cause and Effect Matrix is used to understand the relationship between causes and effects. Whenever an output variable drifts out of specification, that is an effect. When an effect goes out of specification, you need to rank the potential causes in terms of importance, and the causes with the highest overall score should be addressed first in improvement efforts.

This template is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that you can use and modify to meet your specific needs. It can easily be modified to include additional sections if needed. You may, for example, add more rows and columns, or use whatever scoring method that suits your situation. It comes with a cause-and-effect diagram to help brainstorm and organize your causes.