A recently released book promotes hoshin kanri , a Japanese method of strategically planning and managing complex projects, as a powerful component of Six Sigma and lean enterprises.

Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise: Developing Competitive Capabilities and Managing Profit, by Tom Jackson (Productivity Press, 2006), provides a new understanding of hoshin kanri as a grand experimental design implemented through a series of team agreements. It also gives clear explanations of the steps of hoshin kanri, and explains how readers can implement, identify and manage the critical relationships among markets, design characteristics, production systems and personnel.

The book will be released on Sept. 8. For more information, visit www.productivitypress.com.

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