Participating in Columbia CaseWorks

In production, a bottleneck is a resource or operation that limits output, essentially determining the capacity of the entire process. Even marginal changes in the capacity of a bottleneck will change the capacity of the process. This case teaches students about the economics of bottlenecks, and how bottlenecks can affect a firm's management decisions. Students also learn a method, using three inputs, that facilitates bottleneck analysis.