The Hoshin Kanri Forest

Lean Strategic Organizational Design

Javier Villalba-Diez, PhD

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351651868
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Operaciones

Strategic Lean management efforts significantly fail because leaders often lack a map of their organizations. Written in a colloquial manner, The Hoshin Kanri Forest is for Lean practitioners who seek to design organizational structures that functionally support the dynamics associated with Lean Management.

This book will provide a comprehensive quantifiable framework for strategically designing organizations for Lean management. Combining knowledge about strategic organizational design and Lean management, the author introduces a theory called the Hoshin Kanri Forest that considers organizations as networks with organizational structure, functional connectivity, and effective dynamic patterns for attaining an optimal strategic organizational design towards the strategic goal of Lean management. It presents the future of Lean organizations relying on strategically designing its structure, function, and effective dynamics.

This book is about describing an evolutional approach toward a peaceful Lean revolution. It includes useful insights into organizational key-performance-indicator dynamics, gives leaders an implementation roadmap, and offers real examples from the author's professional experience.

Contents

Preface

Author

Introduction

Chapter 1: (CPD)nA—Standardization of Lean Business Communication

Common Mistakes

Management Implications

Further Steps

Chapter 2: Lean Organizational Design

Strategy for Small-World Configuration

Management Implications

Further Steps

Chapter 3: Lean Organizational Dynamics

The Nemawashi Method

Management Implications

Further Steps

Chapter 4: Demystifying Kata

The Positive Side of Kata

The Negative Side of Kata

Chapter 5: Hoshin Kanri Tree

Review of Shopfloor Management

Review of Hoshin Kanri

Hoshin Kanri Tree

Shopfloor Management with the Hoshin Kanri Tree

Management Implications

Further Steps

Chapter 6: Project Management with Hoshin Kanri

Application of Hoshin Kanri to Management of Individual Projects

Application of Hoshin Kanri to Project Management Offices

Chapter 7: Hoshin Kanri Forest

The Emergence of a Lean Management System

Hoshin Kanri Forest

Implementing the Hoshin Kanri Forest in an Organization: Step-by-Step Guide

Hoshin Kanri Forest and Lean Strategic Organizational Design

Management Implications

Further Steps

Chapter 8: Management Conclusions: Perspectives on the Hoshin Kanri Forest

Individual Perspective

Relational Perspective

Management Perspective

Empowerment through Providing Feedback

Structuring Feedback through (CPD)nA

Organizational Perspective

Alignment and Leadership

Epilogue

References

Index

Preface

This book is written for Lean practitioners: those of you who are willing to learn how to design organizational structures that functionally support the dynamics associated with Lean Management. It is written in a colloquial form that aims to create an atmosphere of familiarity with the reader. I have often pictured the writing as a dialog with you, the reader, as if you were a trusted Lean associate, and if it seems overly familiar, please accept my sincere apologies in advance.

First I will tell you what I need from you as a reader, and then what you can expect from the book. If both requisites are fulfilled, be my guest and read on. If any of them are not fulfilled, then we can agree that we don’t agree and it is very likely the book would not be helpful to you.

To be successful in implementing the material presented, you need to be trustworthy. This requires you to have a balance between your character and your competence. Who you are and what you can do needs to be in equilibrium. Just as you would not trust the health of your loved ones to an expert physician who prescribes surgery that they don’t need (competence but no character) or to a very caring doctor who has a level of competence valid in the 1990s (character but no competence), it is not enough to be a Lean expert; you also need to have the necessary character traits. This is entirely a personal decision and it is never too late to develop such a balance.

There are a number of books available explaining all sorts of Lean tools and many are very effective. I will assume you have read some already and are familiar with them.

It is, however, not so common to find a list of character qualities that a successful Lean practitioner ought to have. The long answer to the question is, you need to have a mix of American execution power, Japanese spirit (大和 魂), German discipline, Chinese working stamina, English business courage, Italian flexibility, French savoir faire, and Spanish creativity. I like the short answer more: You ought to do whatever you said you would do. I cannot stress this enough. No exception. Under no circumstances, never ever break your word.

Second requisite: What you can expect from this book

From this book you can expect to find a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to design your organization (or better, redesign because chances are that you are not designing your organization from scratch) so that it fulfills the Lean Management paradigm.

This book is about describing an evolutional approach toward a peaceful Lean revolution. I like to call this a one-seed revolution, in memory of my great master Masanobu Fukuoka, who taught me about gardening and life (and therefore about Lean). You might ask, why is the book called “Hoshin Kanri Forest”? Based on observations of nature, I have developed a noninvasive method to design or re-design organizations following natural processes, specifically to resemble trees and forests. These methods are universally applicable to implement Lean in all types of businesses in which people exchange information to deliver a product or a service. This means that we learn from nature how to become Lean. This floral metaphor, like any other, has its limits of course, but it is a powerful one I have found to help the Lean practitioner come closer to the natural principles of value creation.

From this book you can expect a how-to-do-it-yourself guide, but do not expect that I give you all the answers. The first reason is the same as your enduring memory of that cute girl/ boy who didn’t want to kiss you in high school: cerebral learning is longer lasting through frustration. The second reason is that you and your organization are unique. You and your people have unique talents, an organizational culture, certain experiences, and behavioral patterns that are in place for a reason. You need to understand those reasons before you try to find the answers. If the book serves a purpose, it is to provide a guideline to put you on the right track. If you and your organization want to change for the better, it is totally your choice and no one else’s.

As a consultant, I have been practicing and teaching this material for more than a decade. And I will tell you what I tell all of my customers in our first interaction. I am not your cheerleader. These concepts are not a happy-go-lucky path. These concepts are about seriously challenging individuals and organizations to perform continuously better. They are about hard K PIs and about generating wealth for the organization and all related stakeholders. These concepts are based on trust, and trust is the hardest thing to earn.

This material demands constant awareness of yourself and of the people interacting with you. When you have lived enough, you see the same eyes in different people. Try to find patterns in the eyes of those interacting with you. This will help you.

My intention is to trigger a thinking process in you. I intend to inspire you. You can later get “pregnant” with these thoughts and have your own Lean babies. You will then be able to develop the richness within your organization: by being trustworthy you will foster organizational trust and this will be the soil for growing mindful empowerment on your way toward organizational alignment.

My hope is that you make these thoughts your own. My general advice to achieve this is that you teach this material to others, as this will be the fastest and most effective way to learn and internalize it.

Additional material is available for readers to access on the author’s website: www.hoshinkanriforest.com.

Dr.-Ing. Javier Villalba-Diez
Tokyo, March 2016

Author

Javier Villalba-Diez, PhD, is currently director and founder of an international consulting company that has the mission of empowering organizations to achieve their strategic goals while increasing trust.

Dr.-Ing. Villalba-Diez is a mechanical engineer with Technische University, Munich, Germany, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain. He earned his PhD cum laude in Engineering, Economics, and Organizational Innovation from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2016. His current research interests include Hoshin Kanri and business intelligence.

He has a background of more than fifteen years as a Lean consultant and several years as production manager in a number of positions related to manufacturing operations in German, American, and Japanese manufacturing facilities.

His research and work have brought him to numerous companies and hundreds of factories, where he collaborates with people to test ideas and share lessons learned. He divides his time between Spain, Germany, the United States, and Japan.

Introduction

Before we begin, I first need to clarify important concepts to understand the ground we are moving into and describe the challenge we are aiming to solve with The Hoshin Kanri...