the encouragement to develop these skills. This is despite the fact that they have to contend with an ever increasing pace of modern day manufacturing and an almost exponential increase in the complexity, availability and quantity of information. As a result, the need for front line manufacturing supervisors to posses the traits and skills of a critical thinker is paramount if they are to continuously improve their environments. These individuals must be capable of interpreting the reams of information before them and by applying purposeful and reflective judgment determine the meaning and significance of what has been observed, expressed or inferred. They must determine whether there is adequate justification to accept a conclusion as true and decide on the appropriate course of action. Whilst business leaders acknowledge the need for this ability, within a manufacturing supervisory environment the term critical thinking is practically an unknown phrase. It is the opinion of this researcher that critical thinking has been replaced with the term problem solving; to this research a pole’ within this researcher’s organisation drew many ‘straw blank faces when supervisors were asked their understanding of critical thinking. This lack of recognition of terminology does not restrict itself to the shop floor; literature too fails to adequately cover the concept within a manufacturing environment and focuses almost exclusively on pedagogy. Relationship to Existing Literature In reviewing the literature on critical thinking one thing is apparent at a very early stage; this is the lack of a single definitive definition of what critical thinking actually is. Each author, philosopher, psychologist and professor has a slightly different opinion as to the meaning of critical thinking, what is included within its scope and even whether it should be given the title critical thinking. With this lack of agreement on the definition of critical thinking comes an opportunity for confusion in what is a difficult and in-depth subject. This thought is
the encouragement to develop these skills. This is despite the fact that they have to contend with an ever increasing pace of modern day manufacturing and an almost exponential increase in the complexity, availability and quantity of information. As a result, the need for front line manufacturing supervisors to posses the traits and skills of a critical thinker is paramount if they are to continuously improve their environments. These individuals must be capable of interpreting the reams of information before them and by applying purposeful and reflective judgment determine the meaning and significance of what has been observed, expressed or inferred. They must determine whether there is adequate justification to accept a conclusion as true and decide on the appropriate course of action. Whilst business leaders acknowledge the need for this ability, within a manufacturing supervisory environment the term critical thinking is practically an unknown phrase. It is the opinion of this researcher that critical thinking has been replaced with the term problem solving; to this research a ‘straw pole’ within this researcher’s organisation drew many blank faces when supervisors were asked their understanding of critical thinking. This lack of recognition of terminology does not restrict itself to the shop floor; literature too fails to adequately cover the concept within a manufacturing environment and focuses almost exclusively on pedagogy. Relationship to Existing Literature In reviewing the literature on critical thinking one thing is apparent at a very early stage; this is the lack of a single definitive definition of what critical thinking actually is. Each author, philosopher, psychologist and professor has a slightly different opinion as to the meaning of critical thinking, what is included within its scope and even whether it should be given the title critical thinking. With this lack of agreement on the definition of critical thinking comes an opportunity for confusion in what is a difficult and in-depth subject. This thought is