What is Hoshin Kanri?

Hoshin Kanri is often referred to as Policy Deployment. It’s a lean thinking component that helps you spot strategy gaps, develop action plans, and eliminate the waste that stems from inefficient communication between teams, managers, and employees. Hoshin plans are often broken down into three components. These three Hoshin principles are known as strategy, tactics, and operations and connect with different facets of your chain of command. To see how Hoshin impacts the entire organization, take a look at the three stages’ breakdown.

Three Stages of the Hoshin Planning Matrix

The first step is the strategy or your strategic planning process. Your top managers often help develop annual objectives. These annual objectives have a companywide impact. This strategic plan helps your senior managers develop the long-term methodology for your brand’s growth. Your strategy often looks at the next year as a whole and can include breakthrough objectives, compass management, or performance measures. In the Hoshin Kanri approach, you’re likely to review performance on a monthly basis. For your strategic development, it’s a good idea to follow several key principles.

To start, you’ll want to limit your scope. When you’re setting annual goals or breakthrough objectives, it’s a good idea to stick to five goals or less. Like every organization, your brand has limited time, energy, and resources. While setting multiple goals can lead to a sense of progress, it’s the action behind these goals that enhances growth. These goals also need to be effective and focus on the right things. With this mindset, it’s easier for brands in the United States and worldwide to take a stronger top-down approach to goal consensus. It’s also beneficial for upper management.

The next step is the tactical journey. This involves the middle managers, supervisors, team leaders, and administrators. Once you’ve developed your goals and they’re set for the upcoming year. It’s up to the middle management to determine the tactics that will help team members achieve these goals. This may be a training course for a new product, an interactive module, or webinars. Often, you’ll use a catchball system. Catchball refers to the bidirectional flow of goals between middle management and the decision-makers. It enhances strategy development and allows for real-world applications. Other tactics include monthly reviews of organizational goals and daily management tweaks.

The last of the three steps involves taking action. When you’re deploying your strategic objectives for a lean journey, you need to ensure that your front line can implement tactics effectively. This is your brand’s Gemba (the place where the action occurs), and it’s critical to moving that compass needle in the right direction on a daily basis. You’ll use catchball principles here, too. Practitioners should regularly review progress and development. Team leaders and middle management need to communicate about expectations and performance and develop a robust review process. This helps you train employees, access metrics, and leverage the powerful tool of Hoshin principles more effectively.

How do you implement Hoshin Kanri?

If you’re ready to take your brand to the next level or start a lean journey, you’re not alone. Hundreds of companies in the U.S. rely on Hoshin Kanri for more effective brand development and organization. Commonly, you’ll want to invest in a training course to help apply these lean tools to your brand. Hoshin Kanri educators work alongside your decision-makers to implement a strong lesson plan. Whether it’s the end of the year, and you’re looking forward to the next fiscal year, or you’re simply investing in organizational changes, partnering with the right educators is critical.

Certain HK tools and dashboards can help as well. A dashboard can help you spot knowledge gaps or goal deficiencies and correct them for the next time. HK training is a solid investment for any brand in the public or private sector that needs to rethink its goal-setting and organizational development approach. HK training can also help you navigate hazards that impact your organizational goals, including the sweeping changes caused by Covid-19 and CDC regulations for manufacturing and lean development.

From an HK workshop to training courses, there are plenty of ways to start your brand’s lean journey. With the right tools and tactics, you can enhance your company and take your practices to the next level.