Definition
A one-week Kaizen Event before Gate 2 to converge customer needs into a Product Concept: Simplified QFD walks through the six rooms of the House of Quality, scoring characteristics H/M/L = 9/3/1 and setting negative levels NH/NM/NL.
In detail
TG-2 Kaizen / Simplified QFD is a Kaizen Event that, before gate 2, uses one week to converge customer requirements into a Product Concept, with the goal of producing the core elements needed to pass TG-2. It addresses the "requirements to concept" transformation problem in product development by simplifying the six rooms of the QFD House of Quality, mapping customer requirements to product characteristics, and using 9/3/1 weights to distinguish priorities. Its difference from full QFD is that the process is simplified, making it suitable for rapid iteration. It typically outputs a House of Quality, Product Concept, and feature priority list.
Example in practice
An automotive parts company organized a one-week Kaizen event before Gate 2 of a new project, inviting customers and cross-functional teams. Using simplified QFD, they converted customer requirements for noise and durability into design parameters, scored and ranked them, and finally determined three key characteristics as development priorities.