Behr Quality Drive

Quality has the right-of-way
Understanding BQD as a whole
Preventive quality with a vision
Supplier quality with worldwide responsibility
Plant quality for series production
Quality culture affects people

Quality has the right-of-way
At Behr, quality management is based on the Behr Quality Drive - BQD. This is a support program for all employees that participate in product development and manufacture. BQD helps us to efficiently and reliably implement new and existing quality methods and tools in all Behr projects. With BQD, we want to boost our level of quality and lower costs at the same time. These include costs for tests, warranties, rework, and special trips.

Understanding BQD as a whole
BQD involves a holistic approach and comprises all areas of the product development process: preventive quality (in development), supplier quality and production quality. One of the new key initiatives to be introduced is Six Sigma. This is a statistical tool box of methods, applied within preventive and plant quality.

Preventive quality with a vision
The aim of preventive quality is to discover possible causes of faults before the fault occurs.This is based on the experiences gained with our Behr Development System (BDS) Global development network. Prevention depends on analysing development and production processes and then applying appropriate tools and methods to prevent failure. Specially educated trainers support our employees during development projects in order to implement reliability management and Six Sigma methods. Our achieved success, which is determined via series production figures e.g. scrap, rework, or customer complaints - is used as a base for new prevention activities.

Supplier quality with worldwide responsibility
The focus of supplier quality is on the definition of worldwide responsibilities and processes for supplier quality management. Quality already begins with a targeted selection of suppliers and stipulated selection guidelines such as audits, production methods, materials, and test procedures. These stipulations for supplier quality apply to all locations and affiliated companies. The quality of our products and services is based on the quality of our suppliers
Products and services . We also ensure that these defined methods are not only used for our suppliers but also at Behr, when, for example, one Behr location supplies another.

Plant quality
BQD also defines the quality management that applies to our plants. Plant quality is primarily concerned with effective planning and smooth transfer of development projects to series production. Within the BQD program, we combine defined production standards with valid certifications and audits. Q-stops and 5-W analyses, for example, are effective methods for increasing quality in production. Every employee can initiate a Q-stop, for example if they discover a faulty component in production.Following that, we use a 5-W analysis to determine how the malfunction occurred. The results of this analysis are forwarded to the upstream construction, production planning, or purchasing processes.
Furthermore, implementation of product and process changes should be seamless and efficient - both internally and externally.
Six Sigma is also an important activity within plant quality, helping to eliminate faults and optimise production efficiencies.

Quality culture affects people
Quality culture within BQD is concerned with values and the question of how we cooperate at Behr, ask difficult questions, and learn from one another. In this way, our employees have a better understanding of quality and help to reduce additional expenditures and quality costs. Our quality culture ensures that our quality not only consists of standards and certifications, but is something that is lived by our employees day by day. Here, BQD is linked to the Behr Performance Partnership philosophy Customer satisfaction, as both approaches have the same goals: improved customer service and a higher level of customer satisfaction.