Business Idioms: Bottleneck

In business terms, a bottleneck usually refers to a single process within a procedure which slows or creates difficulty for the entire outcome. Bottlenecks cause problems, usually involving too much or too little stock and unhappy customers and staff.




More generally, bottleneck can also be used to describe a traffic jam in processes, where actions have backed up and are clogged to a point where no further movement can take place.

▪️ So far we are making good progress with stages one and two, but there's a major hitch with stage three, which is causing a bottleneck.
▪️ At the moment, it's not a big issue, but we are concerned that it might create a bottleneck if it's not resolved soon.

A: The transfer of the goods from the container into the vehicles is proving to be quite the bottleneck, sir. There are delays of up to three hours on some shipments.
B: Well, what can be done to speed things up? What's causing them to take so long moving the goods?