From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Practical Steps to Fix Capacity Constraints
How to find, quantify, and resolve your biggest operational roadblocks.
Every business encounters a bottleneck at some point — that stubborn process, team, or machine that slows everything else down. When these constraints go unmanaged, they quietly erode efficiency, delay orders, and inflate costs.
The good news? Bottlenecks are predictable, measurable, and fixable with the right approach.
1. Map Your Flow — Find Where Work Piles Up
Start by visualising your workflow from end to end. Where do tasks queue up? Which resource is always “waiting for capacity”? A simple whiteboard, spreadsheet, or production report can reveal where throughput breaks down.
2. Quantify the Impact
Translate your bottlenecks into dollars and hours. How much overtime, lost production, or missed sales are tied to that constraint? When leaders see the cost clearly, prioritising improvement becomes obvious.
3. Apply the Five Focusing Steps (Theory of Constraints)
Identify the constraint.
Exploit it — maximise its uptime and efficiency.
Subordinate everything else — align to the pace of the constraint.
Elevate it — add capacity if needed.
Repeat — new constraints will emerge as you improve.
4. Use Scheduling and Load Balancing Tools
Scheduling tools, even simple Excel Gantt charts, help balance work evenly across machines or teams. The goal isn’t 100% utilisation; it’s smooth flow through the system.
5. Align Capacity with S&OP
Integrate capacity planning into your monthly Sales and Operations Planning cycle. Aligning forecast demand and operational capacity ensures you’re never blindsided by sudden constraints.
Related Reading: Explore how supply and demand planning interact to prevent capacity issues in The Reorder Point newsletter: Balancing Supply and Demand Before It Breaks Your System.
Conclusion
Solving bottlenecks isn’t about adding more effort — it’s about better focus. When you target your constraint, the entire business improves.
Next step: Learn how our 90-Day Inventory Transformation program helps align capacity, inventory, and throughput.