Glossary · Processes & structure
Bottleneck
The step that holds back the flow of a process.
A bottleneck is the step in a process that slows everything down. Just as the neck of a bottle determines how fast the water pours out, the slowest part determines how fast the whole job moves forward. Improve something else and you will notice little difference as long as the bottleneck remains.
Bottlenecks are not always where you expect them. Often it is one person who has to approve everything, one system that is slow, or one step where work piles up. Where you see a queue forming, that is usually where the bottleneck is.
The lesson is to focus your attention there rather than spreading it. Solving one bottleneck often delivers more than ten small improvements elsewhere. As soon as you remove it, the brake shifts to the next slowest step, and you repeat the exercise.
