eliminate the bottleneck

Meaning

This phrase means to remove a point of congestion or delay in a process, workflow, or system. By resolving this specific issue, the overall speed, efficiency, and productivity of the entire operation are improved.

Examples

• Hiring more QA testers helped us eliminate the bottleneck in our software release cycle.

  Hiring more QA testers helped us eliminate the bottleneck in our software release cycle.

• We need to automate this manual data entry step to eliminate the bottleneck in our billing process.

  We need to automate this manual data entry step to eliminate the bottleneck in our billing process.

• By upgrading our servers, we managed to eliminate the bottleneck that was slowing down customer transactions.

  By upgrading our servers, we managed to eliminate the bottleneck that was slowing down customer transactions.

• The operations manager is looking for ways to eliminate the bottleneck on the assembly line.

  The operations manager is looking for ways to eliminate the bottleneck on the assembly line.

• Once we eliminate the bottleneck in the approval workflow, projects will move much faster.

  Once we eliminate the bottleneck in the approval workflow, projects will move much faster.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ We need to delete the bottleneck in our production.

  ✓ We need to eliminate the bottleneck in our production.

  You 'eliminate', 'remove', or 'resolve' a bottleneck. 'Delete' is used for files, text, or digital data, not for operational delays.

• ✗ The new software will avoid the bottleneck.

  ✓ The new software will eliminate the bottleneck.

  'Avoid' implies preventing it from happening in the first place, whereas 'eliminate' means to completely get rid of an existing issue that is currently causing delays.

Related Expressions

Practice

• We need to hire more staff in shipping to ___ in order fulfillment.

  💡 remove the delay point

  Show answer

  eliminate the bottleneck

• Upgrading our machinery is the only way to ___ on the factory floor.

  💡 get rid of the production slowdown

  Show answer

  eliminate the bottleneck