Lean thinking and strategy deployment: adapting Hoshin Kanri and A3-based project prioritization in police services

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to propose a methodology to support public managers' adaptation of the Hoshin Kanri (HK) strategy deployment approach in the context of lean thinking (LT), considering strategic alignment and consensus reaching when prioritizing a vital few of the organization's continuous improvement (CI) projects.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology incorporates the A3 problem-solving report into the HK approach to identify and outline CI projects. The priority and deployment of the projects are weighted by a composite score for impact and innovation using the Delphi method. The proposed methodology was applied in one Norwegian police district as part of action research.FindingsThe obtained results indicate that the proposed methodology provides an intuitive and systematic approach to weigh the importance and ensure alignment of CI projects with the organization's strategy and goals. Consequently, this minimizes the possibility of strategy deployment priorities being weighted by decision bias and siloed decision-making.Originality/valueThe literature on strategy deployment in the context of LT in police services is significantly limited and this study aids in fixing this gap. The adapted HK approach can support the implementation of LT as an integral part of a comprehensive strategic management system, thereby enabling knowledge sharing and exploration of the extendibility of implemented best practices and improvement ideas to problems arising across the organization.

Development of a strategy deployment framework combining corporate sustainability and operational excellence

“…HoK, which evolved alongside TQM and Lean Management (Löfving et al, 2021;Nicholas, 2016), is often associated with Lean practices, and long-lasting competitive advantage and continuous improvement (Santhiapillai & Ratnayake, 2023). One of the goals of Lean operations is to use fewer resources to generate the same outcome.…”

“…HoK and tools thereof (such as the PCDA and X-Matrix), as operational excellence and Lean tools, can contribute to an effective alignment of goals and resources within an organization. Hereby, specific methods related to HoK are beneficial, especially the catch ball process, communication, and documentation tools (e.g., X-Matrix, A3 report), and Deming's PCDA approach (Santhiapillai & Ratnayake, 2023). The PDCA approach is included in widespread operational excellence models, such EFQM (Jaeger &Matyas, 2016), andMBNQA (Bou-Llusar et al, 2009); however, these complex management systems oftentimes do merely pro- et al, 2023), operational excellence (Carvalho et al, 2019) and HoK implementation (Nicholas, 2016).…”

“…HoK may act as an enabler for companies to achieve agile capabilities (Jackson, 2006); agile capabilities or attributes allow companies to quickly respond to changes in their business environment (Bottani, 2010; Ren et al, 2003). Important concepts related to HoK are leadership, communication, control, and review (Dale, 1990, Kondo, 1998, Lee and Dale, 1998), and continuous improvement (Santhiapillai & Ratnayake, 2023). HoK is in parts already applied as an environmental management tool (Wijethilake et al, 2018) and may provide a basis for implementing sustainability strategy within an organization to fill gaps between sustainability strategy and its actual implementation in day‐to‐day business.…”

“…Here, HoK also has great potential in combining operations management and operational excellence with sustainability. Applied for successful TQM (Akao, 2005), HoK is claimed to be central for Lean thinking (Santhiapillai & Ratnayake, 2023) and is used as an approach for organizations' efforts in becoming Lean, that is, to eliminate waste and to create a learning organization, among other aspects (Villalba-Diez, 2017). At the same time, HoK possesses characteristics useful for realizing corporate sustainability, as it is process based and already integrates environmental aspects (to eliminate waste) as well as social aspects (involving all employees and levels of decision making) (Chiarini, 2016;Thürer et al, 2019).…”

“…Also, translating corporate strategy into operations has been a key focus of OM for many decades (Kleindorfer et al, 2005), as there is often a disconnect between strategy and its implementation (Hristov et al, 2022), where day‐to‐day business has priority over the consideration of investing time and effort in planning in the long‐term (Kudernatsch, 2019). A strategic management system seen as to have potential for linking strategy and implementation in the long‐term is hoshin kanri (HoK), a specific form of policy or strategy deployment (Löfving et al, 2021; Santhiapillai & Ratnayake, 2023). It is a technique for setting goals as well as an instrument for evaluation and is both top‐down and bottom‐up approach.…”