Management

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Senthilkumar (Senthil) Thiyagarajan, PhD., is a supply chain analytics professional at Medline Industries, specializing in digital twins, supply chain optimization, and Industry 4.0 technologies. 

Lean thinking is often associated with manufacturing floors, production lines, and complex value stream maps. Yet waste exists in every type of process. Once you begin to see it, you realize that inefficiencies appear not only in factories but also in the everyday services we interact with.

Becoming a Fellow in a professional society such as the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Architects (AIA), or Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a recognition of sustained achievement throughout one’s career, not merely a starting point. 

Mid-sized manufacturers are increasingly being squeezed on one side by large companies with the budgets and expertise needed to succeed in today’s fast-paced environment, and on the other by smaller, more entrepreneurial producers who are better able to adapt, specialize, and grow to meet the continually evolving needs of customers.

Before I get into the focus of this column, I’d venture to guess that many quality professionals reading this column’s title did an about take thinking this guy has lost his mind. To discover the real intent, read on…

Manufacturing has changed meaningfully over the past two decades. Once rare, women in technical, operational, and leadership roles are now increasingly visible across the industry. 

The final draft of ISO 2859-1 was approved in December 2025.

I have had numerous bosses over my 40+ year career. A few were great, most were good, and several were terrible. Coinciding with my career has been the opportunity to serve as a member leader (aka volunteer) for ASQ, something I have done continuously since 1992. 

If you didn’t know any better, you might think Sainyam Arora has been in the quality field for decades. 

Manufacturing has entered a new phase in which measurement alone is no longer sufficient.