Hoshin Kanri: a technique for strategic quality management

This paper describes a technique for Strategic Quality Management (SQM), known as Hoshin Kanri, which has been operated as a management system in many Japanese companies since the 1960s. It represents a core aspect of Japanese companies' management systems, and is stated as: the means by which the overall control system and Total Quality Management (TQM) are deployed. Hoshin Kanri is not particularly unique in its concept of establishing and tracking individual goals and objectives, but the manner in which the objectives and the means to achieve them are developed and deployed is. The problem with applying the concept of Strategic Quality Management (SQM) using Hoshin Kanri, is that it can tend to challenge the traditional authoritarian strategic planning models, which have become the paradigms of modern business. Yet Hoshin Kanri provides an appropriate tool for declaration of the strategic vision for the business while integrating goals and targets in a single holistic model. There have been various adaptations of Hoshin Kanri to align the technique to Western thinking and management approaches, yet outside Japan its significance has gone largely unreported. It is proposed that Hoshin Kanri is an effective methodology for SQM, which has a number of benefits over the more conventional planning techniques. The benefits of Hoshin Kanri as a tool for Strategic Quality Management (SQM) compared to conventional planning systems include: integration of strategic objectives with tactical daily management, the application of the plan-do-check-act cycle to business process management, parallel planning and execution methodology, company wide approach, improvements in communication, increased consensus and buy-in to goal setting, and cross-functional-management integration.