Which term describes a facility, function, department, or resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it?

• A. Constraint
• B. Bottleneck
• C. Throughput limiter
• D. Idle resource

Answer: (B)

The main idea tested is identifying the bottleneck—the stage or resource whose capacity is insufficient to meet the demand placed on it. When demand exceeds what a particular facility, function, or resource can handle, that part becomes the bottleneck and sets the maximum rate at which the whole process can flow. Everything else can work faster, but the overall throughput is limited by this constraint, so improving the bottleneck will raise total output. A constraint is a broader term for any limiting factor, a throughput limiter isn’t a standard wording in this context, and an idle resource isn’t actively limiting production.