Bottleneck

Bottleneck refers to a point of congestion in a supply chain whereby its limited capacity reduces the capacity of the whole supply chain. The results of bottlenecks can be stalls in production, supply overstock, or customer dissatisfaction, among other impacts. Bottlenecks occur when input at a supply chain node comes in faster than the speed of the process. Identifying both short-term and long-term bottlenecks in an end-to-end supply chain reduces accumulation risks and throughput risks. For example, a lack of smelter and refinery supply can cause upstream bottlenecks and effectively limit production.