A bottleneck is any point in your business that limits the flow of work, value, or progress. It might be a slow process, a person who is stretched too thin, a tool that no longer fits, or a habit that no one questions—but whatever it is, it holds everything else back.

The idea of bottlenecks is central to the Theory of Constraints (TOC), introduced by Eli Goldratt. TOC teaches that every system has a constraint—a single limiting factor that determines the pace or performance of the entire system. In other words, your business is only as fast, flexible, or profitable as its slowest or weakest point.

That constraint—the bottleneck—is not always obvious. It is not necessarily the department that is visibly struggling. Often, it is the place where work piles up, where decisions stall, or where nobody quite knows what to do next. And while some bottlenecks live in processes and tools, many live in beliefs, outdated policies, or unclear roles.

Example 1: A company invests heavily in marketing, generating more leads than ever. But sales cannot follow up quickly enough because only one person is allowed to quote pricing. That pricing policy—not the sales team—is the bottleneck.

Example 2: A manufacturer keeps missing delivery deadlines. Operations blames vendors. Vendors blame order volume. But the real constraint? The owner is the only one approving purchase orders—and she is often in meetings. The bottleneck is at the top.

In the WeRX 360 Method™, we treat bottlenecks not as failures, but as signals. Identifying a bottleneck gives you leverage. When you fix the right one, everything speeds up—not just a little, but across the board.

The key is to go looking—not for the loudest problem, but for the limiting step. Find it, fix it, and then look for the next one. Business growth becomes a cycle of targeted improvement, not blind effort.