Hoshin kanri ‐ a participative way of quality management in Japan

Abstract

The essential steps of “hoshin kanri”, or policy management, in Japanese companies are described. They are annual policy and medium‐ to long‐term policy, basic company philosophy and quality policy, converting methodological policy into objective policy, the composition of policy, two deployment styles of target ‐ top‐down and bottom‐up, target deployment and “catch‐ball”, and top management internal quality control audit