In a competitive situation where clients demand for high responsiveness to order-specific requirements, suppliers of volumetric preassemblies are struggling to maintain efficiency in production. In operation management literature, bottleneck detection has been suggested as key to continuous improvement processes in manufacturing. Yet, there is no consensus on definition and detection of bottlenecks. In an ongoing study, aiming to better understand manufacturing implications of high responsiveness to unique clients' specifications, a volumetric preassembly company providing prefabricated bathroom pods was addressed. Bottlenecks were explored based on three methods suggested in the literature i.e. by asking knowledgeable employees, by observing WD? inventory, and by analyzing process data in a field experiment. By juxtaposing the results, a mixed and somewhat contradictory view was displayed of bottlenecks and their potential root causes. Thus, a more complex view emerges of how to understand and address bottlenecks to improve production efficiency, highlighting the need to potentially extend shop-floor assessments to include supplier and client interfaces.
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