Operations & Logistics Professionals · situation guide
Explain accumulated work, constrained flow, and the consequences of changing priorities.
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Work waiting, the step limiting progress, and the rate of completion answer different questions.
Vocabulary for this situation
Describe accumulated unfinished work
A backlog is accumulated work that is waiting to be completed. It names the work waiting, rather than the process step that limits completion.
“We have a backlog of 80 orders waiting to be processed.”
Usage note: A backlog is work waiting, not the cause of the delay.
Identify a constraint on flow
A bottleneck is the specific point in a process, system, team, or plan that limits how much can move forward.
“Inspection is the bottleneck in the dispatch process.”
Usage note: Name the limiting step instead of blaming a person.
Practice “bottleneck” →Describe the rate of completed work
Throughput is the rate at which a team, process, or system actually completes work or processes data over a period — not a one-time total, not a theoretical maximum, and not an efficiency ratio.
“Throughput is 40 orders an hour.”
Usage note: A rate needs a time period; it is not simply a queue total.
Practice “throughput” →Communication sequence
We have a backlog of 80 orders waiting to be processed.
Inspection is the bottleneck in the dispatch process.
Throughput is 40 orders an hour.
Common mistakes
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