Abstract
This study aims to identify both the causes and costs that are associated with poor quality on South
African manufacturing SMMEs. Secondly, it seek to find the reason(s) for not implementing quality practices in
SMMEs. This study adopted both qualitative and quantitative approach, whereby 90 SMMEs are given
questionnaires to fill out. Interviews and probing questions and observations were conducted as well. This study
discovered that most of furniture manufacturing SMMEs do not have a quality departments. Furthermore, it
discovered that some of do not even implement not even a single quality practice because they are not known to
them and to some it is too complex to use and train. This study recommends that government should intervene
and offer quality workshops and trainings to SMMEs so that they may improve their quality. As this study solely
focused on manufacturing SMMEs, a replication study should be done on other industries.