Managing Design Quality in Small and Medium-Scale Furniture Manufacturing Enterprises in Lagos State

Design quality management in small and medium-scale furniture manufacturing enterprises presents distinctive challenges driven by limited technical capacity, informal operational structures, and competitive pressure from imported furniture products. This study investigates design quality management practices within twenty-four furniture manufacturing SMEs operating in the Mushin and Ikorodu industrial clusters of Lagos State, South West Nigeria. Using a mixed-methods approach combining structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews with enterprise owners, production supervisors, and design staff, the study maps existing quality assurance processes, identifies critical design failure points, and assesses the uptake of design standards and certifications. Findings reveal that fewer than thirty percent of surveyed enterprises operate with documented design specifications, and that the majority of product failures reported by customers relate to poor dimensional tolerancing, inadequate surface finishing, and substandard joint construction, all traceable to gaps in design communication between proprietors and workshop artisans. The study develops a simplified Design Quality Checklist tailored to the operational context of informal furniture manufacturing, covering materials verification, prototype approval, finishing standards, and packaging assessment. The checklist is validated through a six-week pilot implementation in four enterprises, during which customer complaint rates declined by thirty-seven percent. This study recommends that the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce and Industry incorporate design quality training into its SME support programme and that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria develop a light-touch certification pathway for informal furniture producers. Keywords: design quality, furniture manufacturing, SMEs, Lagos State, quality management.