Bottleneck Principle - Explained
What is the Bottleneck Principle?
Written by Jason Gordon
Updated at June 26th, 2021
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Table of Contents
What is the Bottleneck Principle?How does the Bottleneck Principle Work? Academic Research on Bottleneck PrincipleWhat is the Bottleneck Principle?
The bottleneck principle, or a bottleneck, occurs when a system of production such as facility, machine, or equipment is overwhelmed by production to the extent that it cannot meet demands for more production. When there is congestion or a backup, a bottleneck has occurred. The term "bottleneck" is derived from the narrow neck of a physical bottle.
Back to: OPERATIONS, LOGISTICS, & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
How does the Bottleneck Principle Work?
A sudden rise in demand that overwhelms the capacity of production can lead to a bottleneck. Bottlenecks often result in delays in production, increase in expenses of production, increase in time used for production are traits of bottleneck.
Another significant impact of bottlenecks is that they affect the ability to project and allocate costs along the manufacturing process. Variance analysis seeks to identify potential bottlenecks and allow for planning of changes in the production processes. It differentiates budgeted results from actual results.
Academic Research on Bottleneck Principle
- The principle of bottleneck structures, Brand, M., & Markowitsch, H. J. (2003). In Principles of learning and memory (pp. 171-184). Birkhuser, Basel.
- Parity pricing and its critics: A necessary condition for efficiency in the provision of bottleneck services to competitors, Baumol, W. J., Ordover, J. A., & Willig, R. D. (1997). Yale J. on Reg., 14, 145.
- Breaking through the V and V bottleneck, Croxford, M., & Sutton, J. (1995, October). In International Eurospace-Ada-Europe Symposium (pp. 344-354). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
- A Bottleneck Principle for Techno-Metabolic Chains, Mustafin, A. T. (2017).
- Bottleneck management in discrete batch production, Denisa, F. (2012). Journal of Competitiveness, 4(2), 161-171.
- Research on the Improvement of General Assemble Line Bottleneck for the Car, Gong, J. H., Zhu, Q. Y., & Zhang, L. J. (2014). In Applied Mechanics and Materials (Vol. 678, pp. 705-711). Trans Tech Publications.
- Bottleneck Identification of Equipment Manufacturing Industry Chain Upgrading Based on the TOC, Jian, X., Yumei, Z., & Xin, W. (2011, November). In 2011 International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering (pp. 263-266). IEEE.
- A Study on the Bottleneck Identification of Constraint Theory [J], Wenhui, G. A. O. (2008). Journal of Xi'an Shiyou University (Social Science Edition), 1, 012.
- Product redesign for improved value recovery via disassembly bottleneck identification and removal, Cong, L., Zhao, F., & Sutherland, J. W. (2017). Procedia CIRP, 61, 81-86.
- Principles to Break through the Bottleneck on Selling [J], Guang-ming, C. H. E. N. (2002). Economic Survey, 1, 012.
- Bottleneck Control, Ldding, H. (2013). In Handbook of Manufacturing Control (pp. 347-363). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.