A large FMCG group in Kenya with multiple operating subsidiaries across Kenya and Uganda used Hoshin Kanri to turn its strategic intent into a clear set of priorities, align plants and functions behind those goals, and build a disciplined performance-improvement and continuous-improvement culture across the organisation.
Context and Challenges
The group produces and markets a wide range of human nutrition products through multiple subsidiaries and production sites. Before adopting Hoshin Kanri, the organisation faced typical growth-stage issues:
- Many initiatives, weak linkage to strategy – improvement projects existed in pockets, but they were not systematically connected to top-level business goals.
- No common method for projects – in earlier environments, projects would often start without a clear way to identify the right focus, anticipate challenges, or map out the steps and expected results. Outcomes were hard to quantify and sustain.
- Limited alignment across sites and functions – different plants and departments pursued their own priorities, and there was no single framework to ensure everyone was pulling in the same direction.
Leadership wanted a way to make strategy visible and actionable at all levels, standardise how improvement work was done, and use that to lift both performance and culture. Hoshin Kanri was chosen as the backbone of this journey.
Our Approach
Building and Cascading the Hoshin Kanri: To turn direction into deployment, the company structured its Hoshin Kanri as follows:
- At group level, leadership distilled the strategy into a small number of breakthrough themes (e.g., business profitability, process excellence, safety, customer focus) using the Catchball process
- Structuring Goals into Three Levels:
- Breakthrough goals: Medium- to long-term strategic goals that create step-change in the business.
- Improvement goals: Focused performance improvements that directly support breakthrough goals
- Routine goals: Day-to-day operational targets that must be maintained (service levels, compliance, basic KPIs).
- For each breakthrough, annual improvement goals, key metrics and targets were identified. These were then translated into Hoshin Kanri project portfolios at each site and function – manufacturing, quality, supply chain, sales, support functions.
The result was a deployed Hoshin where each plant and function could clearly see “these are our few critical goals, and these are the projects that will deliver them.”
Hoshin Kanri Projects and Monthly CI Workshops: Hoshin Kanri was made real through structured projects and regular support. Every year, for each site and function, Hoshin Kanri projects aligned to breakthrough and improvement goals were identified. These covered production, supply chain, commercial and enabling functions. Teams worked on these projects daily in small improvements mode, supported by monthly CI workshops to Review progress against plans and metrics. Surface and prioritise obstacles, Implement actions and allocate resources.
Daily Management and Alignment with Performance Management: To ensure Hoshin did not remain a one-off annual exercise, the group integrated it into daily and monthly management. Operational KPIs and daily routines at plant and department level were aligned to Hoshin goals, so that daily work (routine goals) supported improvement and breakthrough goals.
Recognition, Learning and Standardisation: Every quarter the company used structured recognition to reinforce the method. Teams and projects that applied the Hoshin / CI method well and delivered strong results were recognised. Their stories were shared as internal benchmarks, helping other sites and functions to learn “what good looks like” in project selection, analysis, execution and control.
Key Strategies Implemented
- Goal Deployment: Clear distinction between breakthrough, improvement and routine goals so that strategic priorities, improvement initiatives and daily operations no longer competed but reinforced each other.
- Focused Hoshin portfolio instead of scattered projects: Rather than many unconnected initiatives, each site ran a focused set of Hoshin projects tied to the few critical goals.
- Structured CI / Hoshin method: Projects followed a methodical logic Identify and select the right project linked to a Hoshin goal, Use systematic approach for implementation and Quantify expected results and track them with agreed KPIs.
- Regular reviews and fast problem-solving: Monthly CI workshops and periodic Hoshin reviews ensured issues were escalated early, support was provided quickly, and projects did not stall.
- Culture-building through recognition and visibility: Visible recognition of well-run projects and the continuous communication of how daily work links to corporate goals helped shift mindsets from “my job” to “our goals”.
Results & Benefits
- Improved Business performance and profitability: 100% Net profit improvement within 18 months
- USD 2 Million + savings generated through internal CI projects within 1 year
- 25%+ improvement in employee performance
- Improved alignment and willingness to stretch
- Standardised ways of working across sites
Overall, Hoshin Kanri has become the central spine connecting strategy, improvement and daily management—turning continuous improvement from isolated projects into a coherent, company-wide performance-improvement system.