Flaschenhalses

Flaschenhalses, typically referred to in English as bottlenecks, denote points in a process where capacity is insufficient to meet demand, causing delays and reduced overall throughput. The term traces to the German Flaschenhals, meaning the narrow neck of a bottle.

In manufacturing and production, bottlenecks limit line output and determine total system performance. Common causes include machine downtime, slow upstream operations, or insufficient staffing. Identification relies on capacity analysis, line balancing, and throughput measurement. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) treats the system’s bottleneck as the primary determinant of throughput and prescribes elevating, exploiting, or subordinating the bottleneck to improve performance.

In software, IT, and networks, bottlenecks appear as limited CPU or memory, slow disk I/O, software contention, or network congestion. In logistics and supply chains, bottlenecks can arise from supplier delays, inadequate warehousing, or transportation constraints, spreading delays across the network. In project management, resource contention and dependency delays can create scheduling bottlenecks that extend lead times.

Mitigation approaches include increasing capacity at the bottleneck, redistributing work, redesigning processes, implementing parallelization, buffering, outsourcing noncore tasks, and applying TOC guidance. Key performance indicators include throughput, cycle time, utilization, and inventory buffers. Tools such as value stream mapping and process flow diagrams aid diagnosis and improvement.

In biology, a population bottleneck describes a sharp reduction in population size that reduces genetic diversity and elevates genetic drift. In German usage, the plural of Flaschenhals is Flaschenhälse; Flaschenhales is uncommon or incorrect.