In order to know the meaning of the term bottleneck, it is interesting to discover, first of all, the etymological origin of the two main words that make it up:
-Neck derives from Latin, exactly from “collum”, which was used to refer to both the “stem of a plant” and the “upper and narrower part of a bottle”.
-Bottle, on the other hand, also comes from Latin. In his case, it specifically emanates from “butticula”, which was used to refer to a type of container.
The expression bottleneck can be understood literally or figuratively. In the first case, it refers to the narrowest part of a container , which is located in the upper area .
The neck ends at the spout or mouth of the bottle. As it is narrower than the rest of the container, it helps regulate the amount of liquid drunk or poured: if the neck were the same width as the rest of the bottle, controlling the liquid would be more complicated.
Using an analogy, the idea of bottleneck is used to refer to different situations or events. Suppose that an avenue has four lanes but, after a certain intersection, it becomes only two lanes. It can be said that, at that moment, a bottleneck occurs: the vehicles that were traveling along the avenue at a certain speed do not find space to continue advancing at that pace and must slow down until they fit into one of the two available lanes. . This bottleneck ultimately generates congestion and delays .
Within the framework of the production process of certain goods, on the other hand, a bottleneck can also arise. This occurs when one phase of production develops more slowly than the preceding ones, slowing down the overall process .
Within the production of a factory a bottleneck can occur due to different circumstances. However, among the most frequent causes are a lack of operators, a lack of materials to be able to undertake a specific phase of that production, one of the machines used breaking down or working more slowly than usual...
Precisely to prevent this situation from occurring, it is established that it is necessary to anticipate it and to do so, an in-depth analysis of production will be used. Specifically, it will be studied completely and end to end in order to take appropriate measures to prevent it from arising.
However, if a bottleneck finally occurs, it is necessary to act quickly and precisely so that a serious problem does not arise. In that case, the cause will be discovered and then a decision will be made between two options: act directly on the failure and paralyze everything until it is resolved or adapt the chain to that problem.
For computing , a bottleneck arises when a device has a higher processing capacity than another device to which it is connected. The notion also appears in the field of biology linked to a reduction in the genetic variability of a species due to an abrupt decrease in the number of specimens in the past.