Also known as “strategy deployment,” Hoshin Kanri aligns an organization’s functions and activities within its strategic objectives. The collaborative learning method and resource development system allows organizations to leverage their scarce resources.

KaiNexus sat down with Craig Vercruysse and Joanna Omi—Partner and Consulting Director, respectively, at Moss Adams—to discuss how they’ve used Hoshin to get their clients aligned and help fuel their performance. You can view the full webinar here. 

Using Hoshin Kanri to Align and Coordinate Your Lean Strategy

In this webinar you will learn:

• How the Hoshin practice evolves over time
• When to use an X-Matrix vs. an A3 
• The relationship between visual management and Hoshin Kanri
• The relationship between developing people and the must-do, can’t fail few Hoshins

The Lean business management approach is used widely in healthcare organizations because cutting waste from health care delivery is not just a nice idea; it is an urgent imperative. Healthcare organizations are under tremendous pressure to provide the highest quality care for the lowest cost possible.

When resources are strained, Lean is a powerful solution.

Here are the functions that Lean software serves in a healthcare organization.

Kaizen events are the optimal approach for solving many challenging and persistent problems within an organization. (That does not mean they are right for every situation, however.) Recently several customers have asked us for advice when putting together one of these improvement events. I figured that would be an excellent topic for this blog and will share an example five-item Kaizen event agenda.

Depending on the nature of the issue you are about to address, it might make sense to complete one agenda item each day and plan for a 5-day event. Or, if you're confident that success can be achieved in short order, a three-day event may be long enough. Of course, every organization and opportunity for improvement is different, so you may find some adjustments are necessary, but this will give you an excellent place to start.

There has been a lot written in this blog and in many other resources about how to launch the Kaizen philosophy within an organization. Companies are often willing to invest significant amounts of time and resources to make sure that a culture of improvement takes hold. That’s awesome, but we’ve noticed that fewer organizations dedicated to continuous improvement, have a solid plan for introducing the Kaizen way to new employees who join the organization after the initial launch. After a while, Kaizen will become a way of life for your team, but it may be an entirely new concept for your most recent hire. Here are a few tips for bringing them up to speed.

Hoshin Kanri (sometimes called "strategy deployment") is an approach that helps companies achieve breakthrough goals over a three- to five-year time horizon.

The methodology is effective because it allows leaders to keep their eye on the long-term objectives that will change the game, without losing sight of the day-to-day improvements that can add up to significant benefits.

However, we won’t lie. Effective strategy deployment isn’t easy.

Too often, the strategic plan gets lip service, but little else. If you are looking for help making sure that your organization arrives at “True North,” an X-Matrix might help.

X-Matrix Design

X-Matrices are visualization tool made up of five sections. The layout of the matrix helps define the relationships between each of them.

Kaizen events are an excellent way to take quick action to tackle a difficult or long-standing problem. When used along with daily incremental improvement, they can lead to positive changes with measurable impact. However, the devil is in the details, and poor execution can lead to confusion and poor decision making, potentially making matters worse than they were in the beginning.

We’ve had the chance to chat with lots of folks who’ve run Kaizen events - some with great success, others with a list of lessons learned. Here are their best tips for a Kaizen event that gets results.

According to continuous improvement practitioner Jess Orr, A3 thinking is like exercise: we know it’s good for us, but sometimes it’s hard to be disciplined. Understanding how to use A3 thinking in our everyday lives is the topic of the webinar Orr recently hosted with KaiNexus. 

Although the construction industry employs some unique applications of the approach, the principles of Lean are the same as they are in any other industry. The practice is rooted in respect for workers, the elimination of waste, and continuous process improvement, all of which can be practiced without supportive software in place.

However, many in the field have found that Lean construction software can help reduce some of the obstacles that make these principles easier said than done. Have you attempted to implement Lean in your firm, but been disappointed with the results?

Here are the signs that technology just might be the solution.

One thing that we like to remind our clients who are implementing the Hoshin Kanri method of strategy deployment is that most of your employees have probably been through strategic planning exercises before.

Even more likely, they’ve probably watched management go through an annual planning drill and then present the scheme to the rest of the organization like Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments.

That means that the first order of business needs to be convincing the team that this is an entirely different approach that will have a meaningful impact on how work gets done. For that reason, it is necessary to have a solid plan for introducing Hoshin Kanri to the organization.

Here are a few of the things that we’ve seen work very well.

In his book, Standardized Work with TWI: Eliminating Human Errors in Production and Service Processes, Bartosz Misiurek writes, “Standard work is a process where you describe the best way of performing a given operation, improve this way, and train operators on it. As simple as it is to summarize, it is not as easy as it seems to execute.”

We couldn’t agree more. That’s why even though most leaders agree that process standardization is essential for producing quality, predictable results, when you pull back the covers, many organizations do not have standard work documented at all or have poor processes in place for keeping it accurate and up to date. That’s a shame because, without a solid foundation upon which to build and measure, improvement is elusive. We work with companies every day that have been through the process of implementing and socializing standard work. This post contains the best advice for standard work documentation that provides substantial value.