What is a bottleneck? How to identify and overcome

Bottlenecks are a common phenomenon that often occurs in businesses. So what is the bottleneck, what causes it and what do businesses need to do to overcome this phenomenon? Please follow the article below from 1C Vietnam to find the answer!

1. What is a bottleneck? Illustration

A bottleneck is a blockage or interruption in the production process, causing a lot of damage to the business. This phenomenon often occurs when too much work is congested, leading to the business's system and process system not being able to operate smoothly. The consequence of bottlenecks is stagnation in the entire system, increasing production costs for businesses.

The bottleneck phenomenon can be easily recognized through symptoms such as:

• A job that has to be repaired many times.
• An employee makes repeated mistakes.
• The written work processing process is too cumbersome.
• Work in a group is not clearly divided, work efficiency decreases.
• Outdated policies, not promptly amended and supplemented according to current regulations.

Illustrative example of the bottleneck phenomenon:

The goods production line had a broken machine, resulting in the entire line having to stop operating during repairs. Production process bottlenecks lead to delayed deliveries and increased costs for businesses. This is the bottleneck that businesses need to remove immediately.

2. 2 common types of bottlenecks

In fact, people often divide the bottlenecks that businesses often encounter into two main categories:

• Long-term blockage:

These are bottlenecks that often occur in businesses, have repeated cycles, take a long time to fix, and sometimes cannot be resolved. These bottlenecks will consume a lot of costs and resources, so this is the type of bottleneck that needs to be resolved first.

Illustrative example: The planning department works slowly and does not meet requirements, leading to all downstream activities such as importing goods, production, inspection, delivery, etc. being delayed.

• Short-term blockage

This is a temporary type of bottleneck that can often be resolved quickly. However, businesses should not neglect these bottlenecks because they can be a cumulative factor for long-term bottlenecks in the future if not handled promptly.

Illustrative example: An employee in a department resigns, this happens quite often in businesses. There will be nothing if the job this employee undertakes cannot be done by anyone else. So, as long as this employee takes a break, all work that day will be stagnant, creating an immediate bottleneck.

3. How does the bottleneck affect the business?

The bottleneck phenomenon has the potential to cause many negative consequences for businesses such as:

• It costs a lot to solve problems, short or long term.
• Revenue and profits of businesses decrease.
• Work progress is slow, losing customer trust.
• The productivity of the enterprise does not meet the requirements.
• Product inventory, quality not guaranteed.
• Internal conflicts arise...

4. How to identify bottlenecks in production

The bottleneck phenomenon is very common in manufacturing enterprises and has many harmful effects. Therefore, identifying these bottlenecks is extremely important. To identify bottlenecks, businesses need to follow these steps:

4.1 Step 1 - Identify through visible signs

Bottlenecks appear often in the production process of enterprises. It is important that businesses detect these bottlenecks as soon as possible, with the first visible signs such as:

• Partners often complain about the business's delays in signing contracts, delivering goods,...
• Customers are dissatisfied because there is no timely consultant.
• Storage costs, or storage costs, suddenly increased during the month for unknown reasons.
• Work between departments is unevenly distributed...

4.2 Step 2 - Measure and analyze data through 1C:Company Management software

Only visible to the naked eye, not all knots can be easily detected. This can cause businesses to miss important and urgent bottlenecks that need to be resolved.

Therefore, businesses need to use software that specializes in measuring and analyzing data accurately, promptly, quickly and effectively. 1C:Company Management is software specifically for manufacturing businesses that helps manage processes professionally, from planning, progress tracking to output product management.

With 1C:Company Management software, administrators can easily detect existing bottlenecks within the business itself. In addition, the software will also automate management and connect departments together, easily find problems and causes of bottlenecks, and then find suitable solutions. fit.

4.3 Step 3 - Survey those involved in the production process

People directly involved in the production process are able to identify and find bottlenecks more quickly because they are exposed to daily work. By surveying these people, businesses can collect a lot of reliable information about existing bottleneck phenomena.

5. Typical causes of bottlenecks

Below are some typical causes of bottlenecks:

• Outdated work processes: Process is the key factor for a business to operate effectively. Therefore, if the process is not updated, the business will definitely be left behind, wasting a lot of time and money.
• Workload beyond capacity: Work assigned to employees who do not have enough ability will definitely be a big bottleneck for the business. The workload is too large and the ability to respond is not enough, causing the production chain to stagnate, leading to many unpredictable consequences.
• Using manual methods to process data: Collecting and processing data takes a lot of time and effort, and if only using manual methods is not effective. Additionally, manual methods can lead to errors that are difficult to find and difficult to resolve.
• Not optimizing working time: Spending too much time on one job but it is ineffective. Or doing the same boring, useless work over and over again without specialization or standardization. That is waste and is also the bottleneck that exists in many businesses today.

6. The secret to overcoming the bottleneck phenomenon in businesses

To overcome bottlenecks, businesses need to be equipped with the following tips:

6.1 Automate production processes and work processes

Process automation is understood as a series of actions created throughout a process, ensuring jobs run smoothly. The application of production process automation and automated working processes makes business operations faster, easier, and more organized. This saves time and immediately detects bottlenecks when the process stops at a certain stage.

6.2 Implement creative solutions

In some cases, businesses have seen the bottlenecks but cannot remove them, because the bottlenecks are so familiar that it is difficult to find a solution. However, if we use resources from many departments and especially stimulate the creativity of each employee, we are sure that this difficult bottleneck can be quickly removed.

6.3 Continuous improvement

Continuous improvement even when bottlenecks have not yet been formed is the long-term solution that businesses should aim for. One of the improvement processes used by many businesses is PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action). Maintaining continuous improvement with the participation of all employees will make the business's operating system increasingly perfect.

Thus, the bottleneck appears within the business itself, causing many consequences, and needs to be handled quickly and decisively. Recognizing, analyzing, and taking actions to remove these bottlenecks needs to be implemented immediately. To help solve the remaining bottlenecks in businesses, using 1C:Company Management software is extremely necessary. If you need to use the software, contact 1C Vietnam immediately for support.