Managing Knowledge through 'Hoshin Kanri'

A fundamental challenge within business organizations (whether manufacturing or service, large or small) is posed by the difficulties associated with managing knowledge to integrate the long-term vision and strategic goals with daily working processes and with people. The traditional Western approach of "Management by Objectives" (MbO) is problematic because of its tendency to focus on business tangibles (such as profits and cost) in a top-down hierarchical manner with no real consensus from the employees who are required to deliver them. Hoshin Kanri (interpreted as "Policy Deployment" in the West) has been described as one of the core aspects of Japan's management system--for integrating quality within an organization's business strategy through managing employees' knowledge--yet applications in Western businesses have been few. This paper describes a practical method for managing knowledge through Hoshin Kanri, and discusses the associated business benefits and opportunities. (Contains 3 tables and 6 figures.)