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NEW YORK … In a recent study, Dan Jones (co-author of The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking) and colleagues at the Cardiff University's Lean Enterprise Research Centre stated four characteristics of highly successful businesses:

• Hoshin kanri (also known as policy deployment).
• Process management (i.e., with a focus on process improvement as well as financial results).
• The use of lean systems and tools (including the general TQM tools of six sigma as well as the manufacturing-focused tools of lean).
• Supply chain integration (in product development as well as logistics).

Hoshin kanri appears at the top of the list because it is the key to attaining superior organizational learning. That is, it transforms any organization that correctly practices it into a community focused on the most important goal -- the systematic improvement of doing what needs to be done to make your customers happy and beat your competition.

Now, with Productivity Press' new workbook, Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise - - Developing Competitive Capabilities and Managing Profit, by Thomas L. Jackson, a resource is available that fully explores this unique business operating system at the heart of lean, six sigma and lean-six sigma. Readers will benefit from implementing this method of strategic planning, tool for managing complex projects, quality operating system geared to ensuring that the organization faithfully translates the voice of the customer into new products, and business operating system that ensures reliable profit growth.

The true power of hoshin kanri, however, is two-fold -- it is a superior organizational learning method as well as a competitive resource development system. In Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise, Jackson explains how businesses can implement, identify and manage the critical relationships among their markets, design characteristics, production systems and personnel.

This practical workbook provides:

• A new understanding of hoshin kanri as a grand experimental design implemented through a system of team agreements.
• Clear explanations of the steps of hoshin kanri.
• A measure of overall business effectiveness used to determine the focus of corporate strategy.
• An improved A3-styled X-matrix that incorporates a lean "balanced scorecard" for identifying improvement opportunities and converting them readily into bottom line results as a value stream P & L in terms that financial managers and accountants can understand and support.
• A CD containing forms, meeting agendas and examples of X-matrices that serve marketing and design engineering as well as manufacturing.

Hoshin kanri is also the backbone of Toyota's practice of profit management and the closely related techniques of target and kaizen costing, the real secrets to Toyota's remarkably reliable profit performance.

Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise is targeted to CEOs, CFOs, leaders in financial and accounting departments, VPs of Manufacturing and Operations, plant managers, lean champions, strategic planners, six sigma master black belts, six sigma black belts, quality managers and business professors. These readers will gain immeasurably through the book's in depth presentation of the mechanics of implementing hoshin kanri. As a result, they will be able to systematically improve brand equity, implement lean manufacturing and six sigma and integrate suppliers into a Lean and Six Sigma organization.

About the Author
Thomas L. Jackson is a founding member of taktX, a lean management consultancy based in Portland, Oregon. He specializes in leadership development, hoshin planning and large-scale lean conversions. He is the author of two previous books on hoshin kanri, Corporate Diagnosis and Implementing a Lean Management System, both by Productivity Press.

About Productivity Press
Productivity Press is the premier source of authoritative information on organizational improvement, offering the broadest selection of books and learning tools about lean methodologies, based on the Toyota Production System. Whether you are responsible for production, office and administrative operations or providing services, our publications offer you proven, practical strategies for increasing efficiency and capacity while eliminating waste. We are the leading source of materials for educating and training your workforce in lean.

List price is $50.00. Complimentary review copies are available to media contacts by calling (212) 216-7865 or by e-mailing: leon.carter@taylorandfrancis.com.

For more information on Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise , or any of Productivity Press' other titles, call 1 (888) 319-5852 or access our online catalog at www.productivitypress.com.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

"Transforming a company into a truly Lean Enterprise is both a very noble goal and daunting task. Creating Lean Culture only happens through changing the behaviors on an on-going basis. Hoshin Kanri provides not only the overall strategy for completing the transformation, but importantly to those who have not operated in a Lean environment, it provides the step-by-step tactics and tools to be used to accomplish the Lean journey. I encourage the readers to determine how best to apply the concepts and tactics to their company and in doing so improve both their profits and also their long term competitive advantages."

--Richard Christman Chief Executive Officer The GSI Group, Inc. - Headquarters

"Tom Jackson's practical and valuable insights are rivaled only by the importance and benefits of applying Hoshin Kanri."

--Jamie Flinchbaugh Co-author, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean