Yoji Akao
Yoji Akao was a Japanese planning specialist recognized as the developer of Hoshin Kanri. With the late Shigeru Mizuno, he developed Quality Function Deployment. Akao and Mizuno also co-founded the Quality Function Deployment Institute: a non-profit organization dedicated to dissemination and advancement of QFD.
Akao received a Ph.D. in 1964 from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Books
Akao authored or co-authored several books:- Quality Function Deployment: Integrating Customer Requirements Into Product Design
- Hoshin Kanri: Policy Deployment for Successful TQM
- QFD: The Customer Driven Approach to Quality Planning and Deployment
Awards
- Deming Prize: 1978
- Quality Control Literature Prize: 1960 and 1978