Lean Project Manager Supporting a Practical Approach to
Hoshin Kanri
What is Hoshin Kanri?
A powerful and complex Policy Deployment Process Hoshin Kanri is a formal Policy Deployment methodology
used by Toyota and other successful companies to drive improvement. At the heart of the
method you will find initiatives and projects driven by teams. Hoshin Kanri can be used
to solve a problem, deploy strategy, or accomplish an objective.
Don’t let complexity keep you from the benefits A heavy emphasis on detailed analysis and paper work may
deter many from taking advantage of the powerful principles “behind” the Hoshin Kanri process.
These principles: engaging everyone in your improvement efforts, accelerating learning to create
competitive advantage, creating better problem solvers, and using strategic thinking to prioritize
efforts; are powerful and important. With Lean Project Manager Software you can start by
implementing a simplified version of the Hoshin Kanri process and incorporate more advanced
elements at the right pace and in the right way. For many, it’s likely you are already using a
simplified form of Hoshin Kanri. If so, Lean Project Manager will bring clarity to your process,
make it easier to manage, and accelerate your results.
Click here to download our
free flowchart describing this simplified process.
How Lean Project Manager Software Helps Your Organization
By keeping everyone informed, motivated, and on the same page Lean Project Manager Software makes Hoshin Kanri more practical
when resources are limited and everyone is not sold. Using the software to list projects and
initiatives in priority order is straight forward. These lists make it easy for teams to stay
focused on top priorities even as circumstances and plans change. This benefit alone increases
optimism and motivation.
By making management review and Catchball easier and more effective Lean Project Manager’s electronic lists can be sorted in many
ways to focus team reviews on an area of your business, a particular strategy, or a particular
goal. Frequent reviews conducted using a projected image of the software will keep discussion
tightly focused on the execution of planned actions. This increases “group accountability”
and creates a “positive social pressure to perform.”
By eliminating wasteful document management practices During deployment, hard copies of documents are posted and many
electronic documents created, stored and managed. Lean Project Manager Software provides
immediate access to store, view and retrieve documents. Immediate access is critical to the
improvement of fact based decision making, and the increased use of problem solving tools.
More and more Lean tools are becoming available in electronic form. Why? Today’s workforce has
shown a growing preference for working with electronic documents. You can store all of your Lean,
Six Sigma, and Policy Deployment tools, forms and templates in Lean Project Manager.
By accelerating learning through information and knowledge sharing Hoshin Kanri emphasizes accelerated learning to achieve
competitive advantage. Sharing accelerates learning. Lean Project Manager Software is web
based for equally quick access to information and documents from across the office or across
the world. Quick access means more sharing and less:
“time spent searching” for misplaced documents or files
“time spent retrieving” the latest document from someone’s hard drive
“time spent waiting” for the latest document to be sent via email
Lean Project Manager - Making the Dramatic Results of Hoshin Kanri More
Accessible
Book –
Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise by Thomas L. Jackson –
highly recommended for those who want a detailed explanation of Hoshin Kanri
as practiced by Toyota and other successful companies. The book is detailed,
includes examples and even comes with a CD full of Hoshin Kanri forms and
templates
