It’s pretty unlikely that you evaluate Hoshin Kanri software for a living. In fact, that’s something most people never do. So if you’ve been tasked with finding the right solution for your organization, it can be difficult to know what to look for. To help, we’ve made a list of the most important features you should insist on in any Hoshin Kanri software you consider.

Strategic Performance Dashboard

Most executives have many tools for understanding the financial performance of the organization and are quite good at doing so. What is much more difficult is understanding the performance of the organization as it relates to the strategic goals and objectives identified in Hoshin planning. Software should make this easy by providing insight into employee engagement and the impact of improvement work at all levels of the organization.

Structured Alignment

One of the primary principles of Hoshin Kanri is the alignment of the entire organization around the short and long term goals and objectives. This requires clear communication and a built-in mechanism for ensuring that each activity relates to a particular target. You should look for software solutions that make it easy to identify objectives and communicate them to the whole team. Leaders should be able to create customized lists of strategic initiatives, categories, and priorities. Users should be able to identify which goal each opportunity for improvement will address.

Knowledge Repository

One of your organization’s most valuable assets is the collective wisdom that comes from trial and error. That wisdom is lost when people leave the company or change roles if it isn’t captured in your Hoshin Kanri system. The solutions you consider should support the documentation of each attempt to reach strategic goals so that the successful ones can be replicated and the failures can result in learning.

Well-Defined Prioritization

Hoshin Kanri involves a careful balancing of tactical and strategic thinking. Like driving a car, you must be able to adjust to current conditions and obstacles, yet still get where you are ultimately trying to go. This means that priorities shift. You want to look for software that simplifies the process of communicating priorities, making it easy for front-line workers to know where leaders want them to place the most time and effort.

Broad Access

One of the foundational ideas of Hoshin Kanri is that every employee is essential to the achievement of the organization’s success. This means that everyone from the corner office to the front desk needs to have access to the solution used to drive the team toward “true north.” The best solutions allow people to identify and work on opportunities for improvement from anywhere at any time.

We’d be delighted to show you how KaiNexus addresses all of these areas and more, but even if you don’t choose us, there’s no need to settle for a Hoshin Kanri solution that doesn’t cover each of these bases.