Buyer's guide · checked October 30, 2026

Hoshin Kanri and X-Matrix software, compared.

In January the X-Matrix is perfect. By April the priorities have projects nobody updates, the targets have numbers nobody trusts, and the KPI that went red in March has no countermeasure. Every tool on this page promises a living plan. They differ in whether the matrix is real, what runs under it, and what happens when a number misses.

Below: when Excel is still enough, ten criteria with the question to ask each vendor, nine tools compared from their own public pages, and where TeamGuru fits and where it does not. Several vendors rank their own tool first on their own sites; we make TeamGuru, so read our row with that in mind.

Is Excel and PowerPoint still enough?

Excel is enough when

One site, one X-Matrix a year, and a leadership team that reviews it together.
Someone updates the KPIs by hand every month, and that works.
Projects are few and tracked in the same meeting.

Software pays off when

Plant and team plans should follow the company matrix, and statuses should roll up without a deck.
The monthly review spends its first hour finding out which project is late.
A KPI goes red and nobody can say which countermeasure is running, or who owns it.

Either way, the method comes first. The Hoshin Kanri guide covers the yearly cycle and catchball, the X-Matrix guide how to read and fill the matrix, and the free X-Matrix Builder lets you draft yours before you pick a tool.

Ten criteria, and the question to ask

Ask every vendor to show your own X-Matrix in the demo, with one red KPI followed all the way to its countermeasure, not their sample company.

A real X-Matrix, not a picture of one

A drawn matrix shows the plan once. A calculated one knows which project serves which objective and which KPI proves it, so the status can roll up.

Ask: If I mark a correlation, does anything use it, or is it just a dot?
Several views of the same plan

The leadership team reads the matrix. Department heads want a table. The shop floor wants the pillars. Retyping the plan for each is how versions drift.

Ask: Can people see the same plan as a matrix, a table and by pillar, without copies?
Cascade from company to plant to team

Hoshin works when the plant matrix follows the company one and the team plan follows the plant. Ask how a plan below reports back up.

Ask: How does a plant plan link to the company plan, and does its status show above?
Projects and programs that actually run

Improvement priorities are delivered by projects. Look for real project management under the matrix: phases, Gantt, owners, a portfolio view.

Ask: Show me the projects under one priority, their phases and what is late.
KPIs with actual against plan, every month

Targets to improve need monthly actuals against a plan, from your systems, and a roll-up across sites that nobody adds up by hand.

Ask: Where does the monthly actual come from, and how does it roll up from plant to company?
What happens when a KPI misses

A red KPI is where Hoshin pays off or fails. The tool should take you from the red number to a root cause analysis and a countermeasure with an owner.

Ask: When this KPI goes red, what do I click, and where does the countermeasure live?
The review runs on the live plan

If the monthly review still needs a deck, the software is a filing cabinet. Ask whether the review opens on the matrix, and whether the board pack exports.

Ask: Can we run the monthly review from the tool, and export it to PowerPoint or PDF?
A line to the shop floor

Strategy that never reaches the tier 1 board stays a poster. Check whether daily meetings and KPIs live in the same system or in another tool.

Ask: Where do the plant's daily meetings run, and can they see the strategic KPIs?
What the AI actually does

Several tools now draft objectives, summaries or updates. Ask what it reads, what it writes, and who confirms it.

Ask: What does the AI suggest, and is anything saved without someone confirming it?
A price, a trial and the languages of your plants

Most vendors publish no price. Multi-site plans also need the plants to read the plan in their own language.

Ask: What does it cost for my sites and users, and which interface languages are included?

Nine tools compared

What each vendor says on its own website, checked on October 30, 2026. "Not described" means we did not find it on the pages linked under each tool, not that the feature is missing. Ask the vendor.

Tool	Built around	Price	X-Matrix	Projects and programs	KPI tracking	When a KPI misses	AI
TeamGuru	Strategy to shop floor: X-Matrix, projects and programs, metrics, root cause analysis and tier meetings in one system	From $350 a month, billed annually (Group plan)	Native X-Matrix with Strategic Plan and Pillars views of the same data; primary and supporting correlations; statuses roll up by themselves	Priorities carry projects with phases, Gantt and critical path, a project hierarchy and a portfolio report	Each target to improve is linked to a metric: monthly actual vs plan, roll-ups across sites, data by API, file import or by hand	Root cause analysis (5 Why, Ishikawa, Pareto) started from the red KPI; countermeasures as actions with owners	AI X-Matrix generator suggests items for your plan; AI insights on KPIs
Amplon	Dedicated Hoshin Kanri and X-Matrix platform	Per X-Matrix, unlimited users; each extra matrix €110 / $150 a month; base price not shown	Native, clickable X-Matrix; catchball Alignment Builder; bowler charts; side-by-side matrices	Project charter, sub-projects, Gantt, task dependencies, stage-gated portfolio Kanban	Monthly forecasts and actuals, automatic traffic lights, roll-ups by sum or weighted average	Comments and links to external documents, such as an A3; no native countermeasure workflow described	AI coach for setting long-term and annual objectives
Businessmap	Kanban project and portfolio work management with OKRs	Per user; numbers not readable on the page; free trial	No X-Matrix module: objectives, annual goals and projects modelled as board layers	Strongest execution engine here: portfolio to team boards, Gantt, dependencies	Outcomes with start and target values, checkpoints, projected hit or miss	AI chart analysis flags when a project needs corrective action; root cause tools not described	MCP server for AI assistants, AI chart analysis, AI whiteboards
Cascade	Strategy execution platform for executives (OKRs, balanced scorecard, custom frameworks)	Free for up to 2 users; paid plans on request	Not described: Hoshin Kanri is a template of focus areas, objectives, KPIs and projects	Objectives, projects and actions; progress pulled from Jira and Asana	Metrics from BI tools, data lakes and spreadsheets (Power BI, Tableau, SAP named)	AI explains a status and recommends actions; root cause tools not described	Drafts plans from documents and updates from meetings and e-mails
i-nexus	Strategy execution platform (Workbench) for strategy offices and PMOs	Workbench on request; free 4-week trial with a consultant	Native, rotatable X-Matrix; catchball; bowling charts generated from the plan	Portfolios, programs and projects up to stage-gate; capacity and dependency analysis	Metrics linked to projects as bowling charts; data by hand, spreadsheet upload or API	A3 root cause and countermeasure plans; a countermeasure report for underperforming KPIs	Described as AI-powered; no AI feature described
iObeya	Digital Obeya rooms: visual boards for strategy and daily management	Team plan €3,780 per room a year (up to 50 users); 30-day trial rooms	Built as a board; correlations, bowling chart and KPI roll-up into the matrix not described	Cards with owner, due date and KPI; two-way Jira, Azure DevOps and SharePoint connectors	QCD boards fed from Excel, CSV, Power BI and SAP	A KPI breach raises an issue, linked to a PDCA or A3, and can be escalated to tier 2	Not described
KaiNexus	Continuous improvement platform; the X-Matrix is an add-on module	Not published	X-Matrix module with configurable correlations; bowling charts through the Charts module	Improvement projects, A3s, DMAIC and PDSA, opened from the matrix	Charts module with bowling charts; external data through an integrations add-on	A3 and PDSA templates; AI checks root cause quality; a link from a red KPI is not described	KaiNexus Intelligence: templates from text or a photo, insights, nudges, checkpoints
KPI Fire	Strategy execution and continuous improvement: goals, metrics, Lean Six Sigma portfolio	Not published; trial on request	Dynamic X-Matrix per department, with bowling and portfolio timeline views	Projects with charters and Lean, Six Sigma or 8D workflow templates; savings tracking	Metrics linked to goals and projects, daily to quarterly, by hand, import or API	An alert when a KPI leaves its target zone, then a corrective action tracked as a project	Described as AI-powered; no AI feature described
Profit.co	OKR and performance suite; Hoshin Kanri is one module	Not published; 30-day free trial	One-page view of vision, objectives, priorities and KPIs; catchball; bowler chart	Projects module with portfolio and project management	Bowler chart targets vs actuals; 300+ KPI templates; 100+ integrations	PDCA cadence and structured reviews; root cause and countermeasures not described	Athena AI, metered in credits: drafting, summaries, meeting notes

TeamGuru

Best for: Manufacturers who want full circle accountability: from the objective to the project, the KPI, the root cause and back, down to the tier 1 board.

Know before you buy: No bowling chart: each target shows a monthly actual-vs-plan chart instead. Catchball runs as a conversation, not a workflow. No native mobile app.

Sources: Strategy deployment · X-Matrix Builder (free)

Amplon

Best for: Strategy teams that want a dedicated X-Matrix tool with catchball and bowler charts, priced per matrix.

Know before you buy: Its page calls Amplon the only and best X-Matrix software; that is its own claim. Daily or tier meetings, PDF or PowerPoint export and a free trial are not described.

Sources: Pricing · Features

Businessmap

Best for: Organizations whose priority is portfolio and project flow, with Hoshin layered on top.

Know before you buy: No X-Matrix, bowling chart or countermeasure flow described.

Sources: Hoshin Kanri

Cascade

Best for: Executive teams that want polished reporting and BI integrations more than a lean method.

Know before you buy: No X-Matrix described, interface in English only, built for the C-suite rather than plants.

Sources: Hoshin template · Pricing

i-nexus

Best for: Large organizations with a strategy office that want the classic Hoshin loop from matrix to countermeasure report.

Know before you buy: No public price; the shop-floor layer (daily meetings) is not described; interface languages not listed.

Sources: Hoshin Kanri · Pricing

iObeya

Best for: Organizations that run many visual rooms and want strategy and tier meetings on the same boards.

Know before you buy: The X-Matrix is a drawn board, not a calculated module. Pricing is per room.

Sources: Lean strategy · Hoshin Kanri

KaiNexus

Best for: Improvement teams that want the X-Matrix inside their idea and project pipeline.

Know before you buy: X-Matrix, charts and languages are separate modules the vendor switches on; a company-to-site cascade is not described.

Sources: X-Matrix module · Pricing

KPI Fire

Best for: CI teams that want a KPI alert to turn into a Six Sigma project, with savings tracked.

Know before you buy: No public price; X-Matrix correlations and interface languages not described.

Sources: X-Matrix · Pricing

Profit.co

Best for: Companies that want Hoshin next to OKRs, reviews and HR performance in one suite.

Know before you buy: Hoshin is one module of a broad HR and OKR suite; no root cause step described.

Sources: Hoshin Kanri · Pricing

Where TeamGuru fits, and where it does not

TeamGuru is built for full circle accountability: the objective on the X-Matrix, the projects that deliver it, the KPI that proves it, the root cause analysis when the KPI misses, and the actions that bring it back, down to the tier 1 board. It is the right choice when that loop is what you are missing.

What it does

A native X-Matrix with primary and supporting correlations, and the same plan as a Strategic Plan table and by Pillars, for the people who never read a matrix.
Statuses calculated from projects and metrics roll up to the objectives and the plan above; hover explains why.
Complete project and program management under each priority: phases, Gantt with critical path, a project hierarchy across sites and a portfolio report.
Comprehensive metric tracking: each target to improve reads its metric, monthly actual against plan, rolled up from team to plant to company.
When a KPI misses, root cause analysis starts from the red number, and the countermeasures come back as actions with owners and dates.
The review runs on the live plan in standardized meetings, and the board pack exports to PowerPoint or PDF.
The same system runs the tier meetings, SQDIP boards and leader standard work, in 16 interface languages. An AI generator suggests items for a new X-Matrix.

What it does not do

No bowling chart: each target shows a monthly actual-vs-plan chart instead.
Catchball stays a conversation between levels; there is no proposal-and-approval workflow for objectives.
No native mobile app; it runs in the browser on phones and tablets.

Strategy deployment, projects, metric dashboards, root cause analysis, meetings and reports come with every plan; the Group plan starts at $350 a month, billed annually. See strategy deployment, projects and actions and KPI management, or book a demo on your own X-Matrix from any page.

How we compared

We picked the tools that come up when people search for Hoshin Kanri and X-Matrix software, read each vendor's own product, pricing and help pages on October 30, 2026, and wrote down only what those pages say. We left out review-site ratings, because we could not read them reliably. One more tool, hoshin.app, was still in early access. If something has changed, or we got your product wrong, write to info@teamguru.com and we will correct it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Hoshin Kanri software?

It depends on how far down the plan has to reach. For a strategy office running portfolios, i-nexus. For a dedicated X-Matrix tool priced per matrix, Amplon. For Hoshin inside a continuous improvement pipeline, KaiNexus or KPI Fire. For OKRs and HR in one suite, Profit.co. For a manufacturer that wants the X-Matrix connected to projects, KPIs, root cause analysis and the tier 1 board, TeamGuru.

What is X-Matrix software?

Software that holds the Hoshin Kanri X-Matrix as data, not a drawing: long-term objectives, annual objectives, improvement priorities and targets to improve, with the correlations between them. Good tools then link the priorities to projects and the targets to live KPIs, so the matrix shows status instead of intentions.

How much does Hoshin Kanri software cost?

Most vendors publish no price. Of the nine tools on this page, four show a number: Amplon per extra X-Matrix (€110 or $150 a month), iObeya per room (€3,780 a year on the Team plan), Cascade with a free plan for up to 2 users, and TeamGuru from $350 a month, billed annually. Checked on October 30, 2026.

Can I try an X-Matrix tool for free?

Yes. Our free X-Matrix Builder lets you build, connect and share an X-Matrix in the browser, with no account. i-nexus offers a four-week trial with a consultant, Profit.co a 30-day trial, iObeya 30-day trial rooms and Cascade a free plan.

How does TeamGuru close the loop when a KPI misses its target?

The target to improve on the X-Matrix reads its metric, so a miss shows on the plan the same month. From the red KPI you start a root cause analysis with 5 Why, Ishikawa or Pareto; the countermeasures become actions with owners and dates, reviewed in the standardized meeting until the metric is back on plan. That is the full circle: objective, project, KPI, root cause, action.