Hoshin Planning: Making the Strategic Plan Work

Hoshin strategic planning was used at Hewlett Packard Co. for the first time in 1976 for achieving these objectives.

What Is Hoshin Planning?

Hoshin planning comes from the original term Hoshin Kanri. It is a systematic planning methodology to define long range and key entity objectives. Without losing sight of the daily measures needed to make the business succeed, it aims at achieving breakthrough objectives over a period of two to five years.

Hoshin ensures that everyone in the organization works toward achieving the same objectives. The plan moves from key top levels to key business players. Ownership is clearly identified at the appropriate levels. Top management identifies the needs or opportunities, a strategically important annual objective, and plans are made to achieve the objectives.

Also, the processes to monitor the actions, metrics to asses the progress and previous experiences are used to improve the planning process of Hoshin.

Relevance of Hoshin planning

The plans are based on the annual state of business reviews and Hoshin objectives. The most senior leaders of the organization conduct a review of the internal and external factors that affect long-term plans.

The output, or business situation, is a smaller version of the major business issues that the management has to deal with in the upcoming years. It serves as the reference point for the many plans and strategies of the business. The Hoshin objective is the annual stretch goal, once achieved, can have significant impact on the annual review.

It expresses the outcome with reference to the metrics to measure progress. It also includes a timetable for completion and the person responsible for its completion.

-The Hoshin plan consists of series of hierarchical objectives derived from various analysis. Typically, there would be a base objective followed by multiple 3 or 4 sub-objectives that have to be achieved in order to achieve the basic one.

Each sub-objective will have its own set of metrics and timetable for completion.

-The 'catchball' process is the next stage wherein information-sharing occurs among the parties involved. The purpose of this exchange is to build a consensus among everyone to arrive at the best approach.

The catchball is based on the notion that the best approach will be arrived at by exchange of ideas between those involved. Another belief is that this will also ensure commitment towards achieving the objectives.

-Communicate: The next important step is to communicate the plan to all members involved in achieving the objectives. This helps ensure that all team members are aware of the objectives and the tactics to achieve them.

This is useful to keep everyone on their toes towards achieving continuous improvement.

-Regular Monitoring: It is necessary for the plan to be monitored regularly. Some plans require monitoring to be done during reviews, which can be on an early, quarterly or monthly basis.

There are some plans that may even require daily monitoring.

-Review Meetings: Reviews with the senior leaders of the organization are also very important, so that if there are any issues, they are resolved on a timely basis. If any intervention of the leaders is necessary, it can be done to keep the plan on track.

All these factors are pretty obvious, but may be overlooked. Hoshin planning provides a long term direction for organizations to undertake plans to successfully carry out projects.