Hoshin Kanri — Strategic Policy Management

"Imagine yourself as the captain of a sailing vessel charted on a course for the North Pole. During the early part of the trip, you establish a routine, assign responsibilities, develop the best sailing practices, and develop an efficient organization....

Suddenly, a wind blows up. You have little control over this influence. When the winds threaten to drive you off course, how do you maintain position?

The Japanese characters for Hoshin Kanri mean managing with a compass needle pointing the way..... The North Pole represents our organizational vision and mission. It is our goals, strategic and business policies, and directives..."

Japanese characters for Hoshin Kanri

Excerpt from "Policy Management: Quality Approach to Strategic Planning" by Glenn Mazur, Hisashi Takasu, and Michiteru Ono

Hoshin Kanri is a systematic quality approach to planning, executing, auditing, and managing corporate visions and business strategies on a company-wide basis. It is a company-wide strategic management system that is little known outside Japan

Like a compass needle in the journey to the North Pole, Hoshin Kanri provides a system of steadfastly charting the course for your business based on the guiding principle of your company mission and vision, as all levels of the company workforce navigate through ups and downs of daily tasks, monthly targets, yearly goals and longer-term strategies.


Hoshin Kanri Workshop

Hoshin Kanri Workshop is a 2-day in-company seminar followed by optional facilitation, and can be arranged by contacting the QFD Institute.

While introduction to Hoshin is covered in the QFD Black Belt® training, this workshop provides more in-depth knowledge and hands-on practice of the tools.

This Tutorial will:

  • Introduce the participants to the concept and history of Hoshin Kanri;

  • Show examples of Hoshin Kanri;

  • Show step-by-step guide to creating a Hoshin Kanri system, including step-by-step means of:

  1. spreading the organization-wide visions and strategies to each level of the workforce;

  2. progressively decomposing the long and medium-term business plans into short-term business plans and goals;

  3. clarifying and delegating responsibilities to specific daily targets, methods, and actions of all levels of employees; and

  4. examining how the top-down directives were achieved and how the results are being reflected in future plans.

Students will gain the first-hand knowledge from the instructor who has visited Japanese companies employing this method and studied with some of the top Hoshin Kanri practitioners and teachers in Japan.

Who should attend?

  • Managers, supervisors, leaders of various initiatives, team members who are involved with strategic decision making, execution of the decisions and plans, and reporting back to upper management.

  • Executives and senior management who are involved with planning and managing strategy.

  • No prerequisites