The alignment of strategic goals in an organization can be frustrating for some organizations. Leadership is thinking in one direction, mid-level managers are running in another direction, and production is trying their best to appease both sides. It can be a frustrating and wasteful situation for all. The process of Hoshin Kanri aligns strategic goals up […]
Hoshin Kanri Aligns Goals and Unifies Organizations
The concept of Hoshin Kanri provides clarity and focus to an organization, by aligning strategic goals through all levels of an organization. It creates an organic flow of information which runs through an organization, where goals run down from management, through the mid-level operation to the production floor. In return, the flow reverses and the […]
Lean Tools: Learning More About Hoshin Kanri
Hoshin Kanri is a process used in strategic planning in which goals are communicated throughout the company and then put into action. This method of strategic planning originated from post-war Japan, but has since spread to the U.S. and around the world. Translated from Japanese, Hoshin Kanri means “compass management.” The individual words “hoshin” and […]
Shmula’s Best of 2014
I always love hearing what my friends did over the holidays. You see, many of my friends are either not married and dating, not married and not dating, or married but with maybe 1 or 2 kids. Needless to say, their holidays are either: Quiet, relaxing, and peaceful; eating delectable food; dining at fine restaurants […]
High Performance Organization Model and Lean: Interview with Jonathan Escobar Marin
One of the benefits from having a blog is my opportunity to meet and learn from interesting, impactful, and successful Lean practitioners and leaders. Such is my interview today. In this interview, I introduce you to Jonathan Escobar Marin. He is a Lean practitioner and leader whose background in consumer packaged goods and healthcare gives […]
Lean Sales and Marketing with Brent Wahba
The Sales function within a company is one of the most important. After all, if there are no sales, there’s no revenue. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, the only purpose for a company is to create a customer. The firm creates customers through sales. While Lean has penetrated almost every function in an organization, the role […]
Business Objectives Alignment Worksheet Template
The Business Objectives Alignment Worksheet is nowhere near the completeness and exhaustiveness of the Hoshin Kanri X Matrix, but it is a simple and easy tool to complete to make sure that your lean and six sigma projects are aligned to a business objective and are attacking a specific metric (moving the needle) so that […]
Hoshin Kanri X Matrix Template for Lean Policy Deployment
If you’re here to download the Hoshin Kanri X Matrix, you’re at the right place. But, go here if you want to learn more about Hoshin Kanri in general. The purpose of the Hoshin Kanri X Matrix Template for Lean Policy Deployment is to develop and implement plans that are both strategic, tactical, and coordinated across […]
Nike Lean Manufacturing: An Example of Good Policy Deployment
I was invited to the Nike Headquarters several months ago, where I met with most of the leadership team of the Nike.com business unit, which is the business unit tasked with growing their direct-to-consumer business. I was very, very impressed to see their commitment to Lean and was pleasantly surprised at how far up and […]
Business Needs Assessment
In this 6:46 minute video entitled “Business Needs Assessment”, we introduce several ways to identify the needs of a business and demonstrate how to create a business case from that information. We specifically teach two specific methods: Performance Metrics Mapping: This explains the nested approach and how to align your specific areas of responsibility to […]