Guide and free templates
Hoshin kanri: meaning, the 7 steps and a filled X-matrix example
Short answer
Hoshin kanri, also called policy deployment, strategy deployment or hoshin planning, is a lean method for turning a company's few most important goals into the work that every level does. Leaders and teams agree the goals and the plans in a back-and-forth called catchball, record them on a one-page X-matrix and check progress every month.
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Why companies use it
Why companies use hoshin kanri
Most plants have more good ideas than people to carry them out. Hoshin kanri makes the choice on purpose: a few goals for the year, and only the improvement work that serves them. A project that serves no goal comes off the list, which frees time for the ones that do.
It also closes the gap between the office and the floor. A goal such as lower scrap or better on-time delivery means little to a supervisor until it has been turned into something that supervisor's area can act on, with a name against it. Hoshin kanri does that translation level by level, with the people who have to deliver the result.
And it sets a rhythm. The plan is drawn once a year and checked every month, so a target that is slipping shows up in the spring and not at year end.
The name is Japanese. Hoshin is a direction, like a compass heading, and kanri is management. The glossary entry has the short definition and our Japanese lean terms page has the pronunciation.
The process
The 7 steps of hoshin kanri: how a hoshin planning year runs
Step 1: Confirm the direction
Leadership writes down what the company is aiming at over the long run, often called True North. For a plant it is usually a short line about safety, quality and the customer that does not change from year to year. Everything else is checked against it.
Step 2: Set the long-term objectives
Pick the breakthrough objectives for the next three to five years. Three or four is enough. Each one is a result the plant cannot reach by working the current way harder, and it is written as a result, not an activity.
Step 3: Set this year's objectives
For each long-term objective, decide what this year has to deliver, written as a number a person can check. Press changeover from 40 to 28 minutes is an annual objective; work on changeovers is not.
Step 4: Choose the priorities and the targets
List the few improvement efforts that will deliver the annual objectives, and the measure with a target that shows each one is working. A priority is a programme of work, such as SMED on the presses, not a single task.
Step 5: Run catchball
The draft goes down to the departments and comes back with what they can commit to and what they need. It goes round until both sides agree, often after two or three rounds.
Step 6: Fix the plan and name the owners
Put the agreed plan on the X-matrix with one owner for each priority. Each department then takes its part and plans its own.
Step 7: Run it, review it, learn from it
Daily management carries the work. The plan is reviewed every month on a bowling chart, stepped back from every quarter and reviewed at the end of the year, and what was learned goes into the next plan.
What was learned goes into next year's plan.
The one-page plan
The hoshin kanri X-matrix explained
The X-matrix puts the whole plan on one page. Four lists sit around a central X, and the grid in each corner shows which items on its two neighboring lists support each other.
- Corner A: Which annual objective serves which long-term objective.
- Corner B: Which priority delivers which annual objective.
- Corner C: Which target measures which priority.
- Corner D: Which target shows progress on which long-term objective.
Read it from number 1, clockwise. The words in each list are yours; the picture shows only where each list sits.
The four lists
- 1
Long-term objectives. The breakthrough objectives for the next three to five years. Keep them to three or four.
- 2
Annual objectives. What this year has to deliver toward each long-term objective, written as a result you can measure.
- 3
Top-level improvement priorities. The improvement efforts that will deliver the annual objectives. Each one has to connect to at least one annual objective, and a priority that connects to nothing comes off the list.
- 4
Targets to improve. The measures, each with a target, that show whether the priorities are working.
How to read it
Start at the bottom and go clockwise: a long-term objective, the annual objective that serves it, the priority that delivers that, and the target that shows it is working. A mark in a corner grid is a link. A row or column with no mark is a warning, either a priority with no objective behind it or an objective with nothing working on it.
Owners and resources
A grid down the right edge of the full matrix shows who owns each priority and which departments help. One owner per priority is the aim, even when several departments contribute. A priority with no name against it usually does not get done.
How big it should be
A workable matrix has three or four long-term objectives, four to six annual objectives and five to eight priorities. A matrix with far more than that is usually a list of every project in the plant.
Method and tool
Hoshin kanri is the method and the X-matrix is the page it is usually drawn on. The same matrix is also called a hoshin X-matrix or a policy deployment matrix. Layouts vary, and the links between the lists are what matter.
The free X-matrix template has the four lists, the corner grids and the owners ready to fill in. The post on how to build an X-matrix goes through the order step by step, and the filled example below shows every list, corner and owner completed.
A worked example
Hoshin kanri X-matrix example, fully filled in
Here is the whole plan for one plant on a single page, every list and every corner filled in. Most X-matrix examples online sit behind a sign-up form; this one is open. The numbers are illustrative. Read it from the bottom, clockwise, then check it against the rules underneath.
1. Long-term objectives (bottom)
- L1 OEE of 85% on every line by 2028
- L2 Zero recordable incidents
- L3 Customer PPM under 50 by 2028
2. Annual objectives (left)
- Y1 OEE from 71% to 76% on Lines 1 to 3Serves L1
- Y2 Press changeover from 40 to 28 minutesServes L1
- Y3 Recordables from 4 to 1Serves L2
- Y4 Customer PPM from 180 to 120Serves L3
3. Improvement priorities (top) and owners
- P1 SMED on Presses 1 to 4Delivers Y1 and Y2. Owner: Engineering, helped by Production and Maintenance
- P2 Autonomous maintenance on Lines 1 to 3Delivers Y1. Owner: Production, helped by Maintenance
- P3 Near-miss reporting on every shiftDelivers Y3. Owner: Safety, helped by Production
- P4 Error-proofing at final assemblyDelivers Y4. Owner: Quality, helped by Engineering
- P5 Start-up standard work and first-piece checkDelivers Y1 and Y4. Owner: Production, helped by Quality
4. Targets to improve (right)
- T1 OEE, Lines 1 to 3: 76% in DecemberMeasures P1, P2, P5. Shows L1
- T2 Average press changeover: 28 minutesMeasures P1. Shows L1
- T3 Unplanned stops, Lines 1 to 3: under 30 hours a monthMeasures P2. Shows L1
- T4 Near misses reported: 40 or more a monthMeasures P3. Shows L2
- T5 Customer PPM: 120 or lowerMeasures P4, P5. Shows L3
- T6 Recordables: 1 or fewer this yearMeasures P3. Shows L2
Trace one line through the matrix
- 1
Start at the bottom: L1
The plant wants OEE of 85% on every line by 2028. That is the long-term objective, and on its own it tells nobody what to do on Monday.
- 2
Go left: Y2
This year's step toward it is press changeover from 40 to 28 minutes. A 30% cut is 40 x 0.30 = 12 minutes off, and 40 minus 12 is 28. Checked the other way: 28 divided by 40 is 0.70, so 70% of today's time is left. Corner A has a dot where Y2 meets L1.
- 3
Go up: P1
SMED on Presses 1 to 4 is the priority that delivers it. Corner B shows P1 also feeds Y1, the OEE objective, because shorter changeovers give back press hours. A priority that feeds two objectives is the one to give the strongest owner.
- 4
Go right: T2
Average press changeover, 28 minutes, is the target that shows P1 is working. Corner C links them and corner D links T2 back to L1, so the loop closes on the objective it started from.
- 5
Read the owner
Engineering owns P1, with Production and Maintenance helping. One filled dot per row, so there is one name to ask when T2 goes red.
- 6
Hand it to the bowling chart
T2 becomes a row on the bowling chart with a monthly plan, for example 40, 38, 36 and so on down to 28 by December. If it is red two months running, the owner starts an A3.
Checks this matrix passes
- Three long-term objectives, four annual objectives and five priorities: inside the three or four, four to six and five to eight this page recommends.
- Every priority has at least one dot in corner B. None is there because someone likes it.
- Every annual objective has at least one priority working on it. Y3 has only P3, which is a risk worth naming at the review.
- Every target links to a priority and to a long-term objective, so no number is tracked for its own sake.
- Each priority row has exactly one owner. Production owns two, so its manager checked the hours before agreeing in catchball.
- PPM from 180 to 120 is 60 fewer defective parts per million, a cut of one third (60 divided by 180). Checked: 120 is two thirds of 180.
The six targets on the right side become the six rows of the monthly hoshin bowling chart. To draw your own, the free X-matrix template has a blank sheet and a second filled sample, and the Excel version flags a row or column with no link or no owner.
Agreeing the goals
Catchball: how goals are negotiated down and back up
Catchball is the back-and-forth that agrees goals and plans between levels. The name comes from tossing a ball: leaders pass a draft down, the level below passes it back with what it can commit to and what it needs, and the draft goes round until both sides can live with it.
Leadership
Departments
Teams in each area
- 1
Leaders send a draft, not a decree
The draft says the objective, the number and why it matters, and it is clear that it can still change.
- 2
Each department answers
What would it take? What can we commit to? What do we need, whether that is people, time, money or a decision somewhere else?
- 3
Leaders compare the answers
Where the commitments add up to the target, the objective stands. Where they do not, the objective changes or leadership finds what is missing.
- 4
The same happens one level down
Department leads repeat it with the teams under them, so the plan reaches the area where the work is done.
- 5
Stop when every target has an owner who agreed
A common pattern is to give departments two or three weeks to respond before the matrix is fixed.
Skip it and the targets are assigned instead of owned, so the first red month turns into an argument about whether the target was fair. More in the glossary entry on catchball and our post on the catchball process.
The monthly review
The hoshin kanri bowling chart for the monthly review
The X-matrix is drawn once a year. The bowling chart is how the plan is checked every month. It is a scorecard with one row per target, the planned value and the actual value for each month side by side, green when the actual meets the plan and red when it misses. The name comes from the way a row of monthly scores looks like a bowling score sheet.
| KPI | Row | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OEE, Line 2 | Plan | 72% | 73% | 74% | 75% | 76% | 74% |
| Actual | 73%, on plan | 72%, off plan | 75%, on plan | 75%, on plan | 74%, off plan | 74%, on plan | |
| Recordable incidents | Plan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Actual | 0, on plan | 0, on plan | 1, off plan | 0, on plan | 0, on plan | 1, off plan |
- 1
Set the plan before the year starts
Spread each annual target across the twelve months. A ramp is more honest than a flat line when the improvement cannot land until later in the year.
- 2
Owners fill in the actual
Each target's owner enters the month's result before the review, so the meeting is spent on what to do, not on collecting numbers.
- 3
Go row by row
Green rows get a sentence. Red rows get the countermeasure the owner brought. Plant leadership reviews usually run 60 to 90 minutes.
- 4
Two reds in a row get an A3
A target that is red two months running gets an A3 and a named lead. The plan is not rewritten to turn the month green.
- 5
Step back every quarter
Look at the X-matrix again and ask whether the priorities are delivering the targets, or whether a priority is the wrong one.
More than eight to ten rows on a bowling chart usually means the X-matrix was not selective. See hoshin kanri review cycles for the monthly and quarterly routine in more depth.
From the plan to the floor
How hoshin kanri connects to daily management, kaizen and A3
A plan on a wall changes nothing until it reaches the daily work. Hoshin kanri connects to the rest of lean management in three places.
- Company goals
- Tier boards
- Daily issues
- Kaizen
- Results
Tier boards and daily management
The annual targets become the metrics that the tier boards show at each level, so a team's board carries the part of a target that its area owns. The tier board looks at yesterday and the bowling chart looks at the year. A number that is red at the huddle is raised there, and a problem the team cannot solve goes up to the next tier. Our post on tier boards explains how the tiers connect.
Kaizen
Each improvement priority is delivered through kaizen, which covers events, projects and the small daily improvements teams make. The priority names the problem worth solving and kaizen is how it gets solved. Our kaizen guide covers how an idea moves from the team to a closed improvement.
A3
When a target is red twice, an A3 is the usual way to find the cause and agree the countermeasure. Some plants also write an A3 for each priority so the owner can show the problem, the target, the actions and the progress on one page. The A3 problem solving guide walks through a filled example and the A3 template is free.
A fair comparison
Hoshin kanri vs OKRs
Both ask a company to choose a few priorities and check progress often, and some companies run OKRs in the offices and hoshin kanri in the plants. They differ in what they set and how the goals travel.
| Aspect | Hoshin kanri | OKRs |
|---|---|---|
| Where it comes from | Japanese manufacturers, from the 1960s | Intel in the 1970s, then popularized by Google |
| Time frame | A three to five year direction, with a plan for the year | Usually a quarter or a year |
| What gets set | Objectives, the improvement priorities that deliver them and the targets, with an owner for each, on one page | An objective and a few measurable key results. How to reach them is mostly left to the team |
| How goals travel | Catchball between levels until the owner agrees | Teams usually write their own to line up with the company's, then share them openly |
| Ambition | Targets are plan figures. A red month gets a countermeasure and sometimes an A3 | Stretch goals are common, and a score below full marks is often expected |
| Review | A monthly bowling chart, a quarterly step back and a review at year end | Regular check-ins and a score at the end of the quarter |
| Fits best | Plants that already run tier meetings and kaizen, because it names the improvement work as well as the goal | Work where the route to the goal is not known in advance, such as product, sales and marketing |
If your plant already runs tier meetings and kaizen, hoshin kanri fits what you have. If the work is less repetitive, OKRs may fit better. Neither one works without an owner for every goal and a review that actually happens. The guide on [OKR vs KPI, and where hoshin kanri fits](/okr-vs-kpi) puts the three side by side and works one objective through all of them.
What goes wrong
Common hoshin kanri mistakes
Too many objectives
A matrix with twenty priorities is a to-do list. Cut until each remaining priority links to an objective and has a person with the hours to work on it.
No owner on the row
A priority or target with no name against it has nobody to bring a countermeasure when it goes red. Put one owner on each row, even when several departments help.
Skipping catchball
Targets that arrive from above without discussion get complied with or ignored. Give departments time to respond before the plan is fixed.
No monthly review
A matrix drawn in January and not looked at again is a poster. Hold the review every month at the bowling chart, including the months that went well.
Goals nobody can see at the floor
If supervisors and team leaders cannot see how their board relates to the company's goals, the plan lives in the office. Put the part of each target that an area owns on that area's board.
Rewriting the plan to turn red green
Changing a target mid-year hides the miss. Keep the plan, record the countermeasure, and change the plan only at the quarterly step back, with the reason written down.
Free download
Free hoshin kanri X-matrix and bowling chart templates
The X-matrix template comes as a printable PDF and an Excel file, and includes a bowling chart for the monthly review. The bowling chart also has its own page, with a sample and the questions people ask.
PDF and ExcelHoshin kanri X-matrix template with bowling chartA landscape sheet with the four lists, the corner grids and owners, a filled-in sample and a bowling chart. The Excel file checks each row and column for a missing link or owner, and colors each bowling chart month green or red against plan.Get the templateLean Studio boardHoshin bowling chartThe monthly scorecard as a board: a row per KPI with the plan and the actual side by side, green or red, and a year-to-date column. The page has a sample and the questions people ask.See the bowling chartTemplates that go with them
- OKR template for manufacturingWrite and score the annual objectives as OKRs, cascaded to plant and person.
- Goal cascade and alignment templateThe catchball on one page: who adopted, who wrote their own version, who has not replied.
- Monthly business review templateThe monthly review agenda, KPI pack and decisions log.
- SMART goals templateWrite each annual objective so it can be checked.
- Nemawashi planPrepare the people before the catchball starts.
- SQCDP tier boardThe daily board that carries a target's share down to the area.
- A3 problem solving templateFor the target that is red two months running.
In LeanSuite
Hoshin kanri in LeanSuite
Six things you can do with your goals in LeanSuite.
A KPI on an X-matrix objective
You can attach a KPI to an objective on the X-matrix, so the objective has a number it is measured by.
An example with sample data. A kaizen project tagged to a goal
You can tag a kaizen project to a goal, so the improvement work is linked to the goal it serves.
An example with sample data. An A3 started from a red KPI
You can start an A3 directly from a red KPI, so problem solving begins from the miss itself.
An example with sample data. Boards that update from KPI values
The boards update live from KPI values. When a KPI value changes, the board shows the change.
An example with sample data. A cascade with catchball replies by plant
You can cascade a company goal to the facilities you choose with a reply-by date, and each one replies: adopt it as written, write its own version or mark it not applicable. That is how catchball works in LeanSuite.
An example with sample data. One screen for the executive review
There is one screen for an executive review, with the goals, their KPIs and the projects on a single view.
An example with sample data.
Where to look next
The Strategy module's page shows the goal cascade, the catchball replies, the monthly Met or Missed and the Goal health grid with sample data. Lean Studio has a Hoshin Kanri X-Matrix board and a Hoshin Bowling Chart board to start from, and department KPIs roll up to the plant and the company through KPI trees. Kaizen projects track owners, phases and savings, and the monthly review can run as a tier meeting on Lean Studio boards.
See it on your own goals
Try the interactive demo in your browser with sample data, or pilot LeanSuite on your own lines for 90 days, with the setup done by our team.
Read more on hoshin kanri
- X-matrix: what it is, how to read it and how to build oneThe four lists and corner grids read side by side, a thread traced through a filled sample, and the checks before you sign it.
- Bowling chart: what it is, how to read one and how to build itThe monthly check on the plan: the layout, how to read a row, the plan line and what red and green hide.
- OKR vs KPI, and where hoshin kanri fitsThe three side by side, how to nest them by rhythm, and one objective written all three ways.
- Cascading goals and goal alignmentCascade, align and catchball; the four levels from company to person; how to see unaligned work.
- How to Build an X-Matrix: Step-by-Step GuideThe order to fill it in, from the long-term objectives to the owners.
- Catchball Process: Hoshin Kanri Team AlignmentHow the two-way conversation turns a top-down plan into agreed targets.
- Hoshin Kanri Review Cycles: Monthly Quarterly GuidePlan, do, check and act at the monthly and quarterly reviews.
- Tier Boards: Cascading Daily Management in ManufacturingHow the daily boards connect from the team to the plant.
- Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise, by Thomas L. JacksonOur summary of the 2006 workbook: its X-matrix, where it is dated and what to try first.
- Manufacturing KPIs: formulas and targetsThe plant KPIs that usually fill the targets side of the matrix, with how to set each target.
- Lean leadership and employee engagementAll our articles on hoshin kanri, gemba walks and leading on the floor.
- Best strategy deployment softwareEight hoshin kanri and OKR tools compared on the X-matrix, cascade, catchball and the monthly review.
FAQ
Questions about hoshin kanri
Hoshin kanri, also called policy deployment, strategy deployment or hoshin planning, is a lean method for turning a company's few most important goals into the work that every level does. Leaders and teams agree the goals and the plans in a back-and-forth called catchball, record them on a one-page X-matrix and check progress every month. The name is Japanese: hoshin means direction and kanri means management.
Hoshin kanri is the method for choosing a few goals, agreeing them with the people who deliver them and reviewing progress. The X-matrix is the one-page tool the plan is usually recorded on. You can use an X-matrix without the rest of the method, but then it tends to be drawn in January and left alone.
A year runs in seven steps: confirm the direction, set the long-term objectives, set this year's objectives, choose the priorities and the targets, run catchball, fix the plan on the X-matrix with an owner for each priority, then run it with daily management and review it monthly, quarterly and at the end of the year.
Hoshin kanri decides where the improvement effort goes: a few goals for the year, the priorities that deliver them and an owner for each. Kaizen is how the improvement gets done, through events, projects and the small changes teams make every day. In a plant that runs both, each hoshin priority is delivered through kaizen, and the bigger kaizen projects are picked because they serve a priority.
Yes. It is the lean way to set goals and carry them down to every level, and it sits above the daily lean tools. It grew out of Japanese manufacturers' quality management in the 1960s. In a lean plant it decides which SMED, TPM, 5S and kaizen work gets the people and the time this year.
A breakthrough objective is a long-term goal, usually three to five years out, that the plant cannot reach by doing today's work harder. It needs a change in method, such as a new way of changing over the presses. An X-matrix holds three or four of them, each written as a result with a number, for example OEE of 85 percent on every line by 2028.
Yes. This page has a fully filled X-matrix for an illustrative plant with four presses and three assembly lines: three long-term objectives, four annual objectives, five improvement priorities, six targets, the links in all four corners and one owner for each priority. It is open, with no form to fill in. The free X-matrix template has a second filled sample.
Catchball is the back-and-forth that agrees goals between levels. Leaders send a draft objective down, each department answers with what it can commit to and what it needs, and the draft goes round until both sides agree. It is what makes a target owned by the person who delivers it instead of assigned to them.
A bowling chart is the monthly scorecard of a hoshin plan. Each row is a target, with the planned value and the actual value for every month side by side, colored green when the actual meets the plan and red when it does not. A target that is red two months running usually gets an A3.
OKRs set an objective and a few measurable key results, usually for a quarter or a year, and leave most of the how to the team. Hoshin kanri sets the objectives, the improvement priorities that deliver them, the targets and an owner for each on one page, and agrees them between levels through catchball. Hoshin kanri comes from Japanese manufacturing and fits plants that already run tier meetings and kaizen.
Yes. LeanSuite has a free X-matrix template as a printable PDF and an Excel file. The Excel version checks each row and column for a missing link or owner, and its bowling chart colors each month green or red against plan with a year-to-date column. The bowling chart is also available as a Lean Studio board with a sample.
Yes. In LeanSuite you can attach a KPI to an objective on the X-matrix, tag a kaizen project to a goal and start an A3 directly from a red KPI. The boards update live from KPI values, a company goal cascades to the facilities you choose and each one replies (adopt as written, own version or not applicable) so catchball works, and there is one screen for an executive review. Lean Studio also has a Hoshin Kanri X-Matrix board and a Hoshin Bowling Chart board to start from. The Strategy module's own page covers the cascade, the monthly Met or Missed and the Goal health grid.
Want your goals and your daily boards on the same page?
Bring your X-matrix or your annual goals, and we will show you on a call how they link to KPIs and kaizen in LeanSuite.