what is a bottleneck in a manufacturing process
Bottleneck (production) In production and project management, a bottleneck is one process in a chain of processes, such that its limited capacity reduces the capacity of the whole chain. The result of having a bottleneck are stalls in production, supply overstock, pressure from customers and low employee morale.[1] There are both short and long-term bottlenecks. Short-term bottlenecks are temporary and are not normally a significant problem. An example of a short-term bottleneck would be a skilled employee taking a few days off. Long-term bottlenecks occur all the time and can cumulatively significantly slow down production. An example of a long-term bottleneck is when a machine is not efficient enough and as a result has a long queue.[2][3]
Inventory The concept of inventory, stock or work-in-process has been extended from manufacturing systems to service businesses[1][2][3] and projects,[4][5] by generalizing the definition to be "all work within the process of production- all work that is or has occurred prior to the completion of production." In the context of a manufacturing production system, inventory refers to all work that has occurred - raw materials, partially finished products, finished products prior to sale and departure from the manufacturing system. In the context of services, inventory refers to all work done prior to sale, including partially process information.