In order to know the meaning of the term bottleneck, it is interesting to discover, in the first place, the etymological origin of the two main words that make it up:
-Cuello derives from Latin, exactly from "collum", which was used to refer to both " stem of a plant ”as to the“ top and narrowest 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 term bottleneck can be understood literally or figuratively. In the first case, it refers to the narrowest part of a container, which is in the upper area.
The neck ends at the peak or the mouth of the bottle. As it is narrower than the rest of the container, it helps to regulate the amount of liquid that is drunk or served: if the neck were the same width as the rest of the bottle, controlling the liquid would be more complicated.
Using an analogy, the bottleneck idea is used to refer to different situations or events. Let us suppose that an avenue has four lanes but, after a certain crossing, it becomes only two lanes. It can be said that, at that moment, there is a bottleneck: vehicles that were circulating on the avenue at a certain speed do not find space to continue advancing at that rate and must slow down until they settle into one of the two available lanes. This bottleneck ultimately creates congestion and delays.
In the framework of the production process of certain goods, on the other hand, a bottleneck can also be generated. This occurs when a phase of production proceeds more slowly than 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 the lack of operators, that there is a lack of materials to be able to undertake a specific phase of this production, that one of the machines used breaks down or works slower than usual…
Precisely to prevent this situation from occurring, it is established that it is necessary to anticipate it and for that, a thorough analysis of production will be used. Specifically, it will be studied completely and from end to end in order to take the appropriate measures to prevent it from arising.
However, if a bottleneck does eventually occur, it is necessary to act quickly and precisely so that a serious problem is not generated. 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 solved or adapt the chain to that problem.
For computing, a bottleneck arises when a device has a higher processing capacity than another with 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.