Home › Engineering & Industrial Design › Supply Chain Engineering › bottleneck

bottleneck

BOT-ul-nek /ˈbɒt.əl.nek/

nounverbB2SATACTGMAT

GeneralBusiness

A point of congestion in a system that occurs when workloads arrive too quickly for the production process to handle.

While often used negatively, identifying a bottleneck is the first step in process improvement; the bottleneck dictates the pace of the entire system.

The story behind the word. This is a literal metaphor. If you turn a bottle upside down, the liquid can only exit as fast as the narrow 'neck' allows, regardless of how wide the base of the bottle is.

Word relationships

choke point: Choke point is often used in military or geographic contexts; bottleneck is more common in industrial processes.
obstruction: An obstruction is a complete block; a bottleneck is a narrowing that slows flow.

conduit: A conduit facilitates flow, whereas a bottleneck restricts it.

Commonly confused with

deadlock: A deadlock is a total stop where two processes wait for each other; a bottleneck is just a slow point.

Word family

bottleneck (verb): To slow down or impede a process.

Collocations

production bottleneck
bottleneck effect
eliminate a bottleneck
identify the bottleneck

Example sentences

"A bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it." Explaining the Theory of Constraints. (Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal)
"The construction on the main bridge created a massive bottleneck for morning commuters." Describing traffic issues in a city.

Memory hook

Visualize a wide highway suddenly narrowing into a single lane; the cars are the liquid, and the narrow lane is the neck of the bottle. Narrow neck, slow flow.

When not to use

Avoid using it for wide-open, unconstrained situations.

Fun facts

In biology, a 'population bottleneck' occurs when a species' numbers are drastically reduced, limiting genetic diversity.