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Hansei reflection sheet (lessons learned)
Hansei is the Japanese practice of honest self-reflection, and a hansei at the end of a project, kaizen event or launch is where the team looks back at what went well and what fell short, finds the causes in the process rather than in people, and decides what to keep and what to change next time. At Toyota it is held even after a success, because something could always have gone better. Page 1 of this template is the sheet for one finished piece of work: the goals planned against actual with the share of the planned improvement reached, the plan itself (dates, hours, actions) planned against actual, what went well, what fell short, why, the lessons with keep or change, an action, an owner and a due date, the yokoten candidates where a lesson could apply elsewhere, and a sign-off. Page 2 has the ground rules for a hansei without blame, a prompt for each part of the sheet, how to run it and a worked example. The Excel version works out the improvement reached and whether each goal was met, keeps a lessons log across projects with a status and days late for every action, and counts lessons, open and overdue actions and yokoten candidates by category.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use a hansei reflection sheet
- At the close of a kaizen event, after its 30-day check, so the results in the goals table are real numbers.
- When an improvement project, a product launch or an equipment installation finishes, whether it met its goals or not.
- When the same problems keep coming back from project to project, to collect the lessons in one log and see which category they fall in.
- Before planning the next project of the same kind, to read the lessons from the last ones.
How to fill it in
- 1
Book it and fill in the facts first
Many teams hold it within two weeks of finishing, with the people who did the work, the sponsor and a facilitator. Before the meeting, fill in the goals with baseline, target and actual, and the plan against what happened.
- 2
Read the ground rules out
Talk about the process, the plan and the system, not people. Facts before opinions. Everyone speaks, people closest to the work first and leaders last, and leaders name their own part first.
- 3
Say what went well and what fell short
What went well is kept on purpose next time. Write what fell short as a fact, with a number or a date: 52 units an hour, not 55, rather than the output was poor.
- 4
Find the cause of each gap
Keep asking why until the answer is in the process, the plan or the system, and write how you know. A cause that names a person stops the reflection there.
- 5
Turn each cause into a lesson
Write each lesson so a team that was not there could use it, and mark it keep or change. Every change gets an action, one owner and a due date; give it a category so the log can count it.
- 6
Log the lessons and send the yokoten
Copy the lessons to the log, chase the actions like any other, and send each yokoten candidate to the people who run that line, area or kind of project.
How to run the hansei
Ground rules and prompts on the hansei reflection sheet
On page 2 of the sheet and at the foot of the Excel hansei sheet. Read the six ground rules out at the start, and use one prompt for each part of the sheet.
Ground rules
Read them out at the start
- 1Talk about the process, the plan and the system, not about people
- 2Start with the facts: the goals, the numbers and the dates, then the opinions
- 3Everyone speaks, starting with the people closest to the work; leaders speak last
- 4Leaders name their own part in what fell short first
- 5Hold it even when the goals were met: something could still have gone better
- 6Every change ends in an action with one owner and a date
Prompts for the discussion
One for each part of the sheet
- 7Goals: compare each actual with its target in numbers, and say which were met
- 8Went well: name what helped, so it is kept on purpose next time
- 9Fell short: describe each gap as a fact, with a number or a date
- 10Why: keep asking why until the answer is in the process, the plan or the system
- 11Keep and change: write each lesson so a team that was not there could use it
- 12Yokoten: list where else the same process, product or kind of project runs
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkAn example: the packing cell kaizen event on line 3, 12 to 16 October 2026, with its 30-day check on 16 November and the hansei on 19 November (illustrative numbers).
- Units packed per operator-hour went from 42 to 52 against a target of 55: (52 − 42) ÷ (55 − 42) = 10 ÷ 13 = 77% of the planned improvement, not met. Walking per cycle went from 38 to 12 m against 15, which is 113%: met.
- Cartons waiting in the cell went from 120 to 60 against 40 (75%, not met) and packing errors from 6 to 2 a week (100%, met): two of four goals met. The 30-day check was 3 days late, the team spent 262 hours against 240 planned, and 9 of 12 thirty-day actions were done.
- Causes: the tape machine jams on the new carton size and there was no spare kit at the cell; the carton kanban was sized on last year's demand; three actions waited on purchasing because the charter named no buyer; the move plan had no step to brief the other shifts.
- Five lessons: one to keep (tape the new layout on the floor before moving anything, with line 5 as a yokoten candidate) and four changes with an owner and a due date, including naming a buyer on every event charter.
In the Excel example these five lessons sit in a log with five more from a paint line launch and a press scrap project: 10 lessons, 3 to keep and 7 changes. On 15 February 2027 three actions are done, two are open and two are overdue, the tape machine spare kit by 66 days and the production-part trial for launches by 31 days, and four lessons are marked for yokoten.
Common mistakes
Looking for someone to blame
Once a name is the answer, people stop talking about what really happened, and the next team hits the same problem. Look for the cause in the process, the plan or the system.
Only holding it when things went wrong
A project that met its goals still has lessons, and skipping hansei after a success teaches people it is a punishment. Hold it every time.
Lessons with no action
A lesson to change that has no owner and no date is a wish. The log flags each one until it has an action.
Lessons nobody reads again
A lessons file that sits in a project folder helps nobody. Keep one log across projects, read it before planning the next one, and send the yokoten candidates out.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite validated improvements go into one searchable library that other plants can search by machine type, defect code or department, and each plant marks a shared practice applicable, implemented or not applicable, with a reason.
In the lean glossary
Free tools
Guides
- Running Lean Improvement Projects: From Scope to Verified Results
- Kaizen Event as a Project: Scoping, Executing, and Closing Improvement Events
- Yokoten: Horizontal Deployment of Kaizen Best Practices
- PDCA Cycle: The Foundation of Continuous Improvement
- Lean Leadership: Developing People, Not Just Results
FAQ
Hansei reflection sheet (lessons learned): common questions
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