Free tools Bottlenecks
Divide the stock of each material by the amount that material needs per finished unit, then rank the results from lowest to highest. The lowest result is the bottleneck: the only material whose purchase raises capacity right now. Every material above it is surplus at today's production level.
Bottleneck = the material with the smallest value of (stock ÷ amount per unit)
Chocolate cake uses 300 g flour, 120 g butter, 4 eggs and 80 g cocoa per unit. Stock is 8,000 g flour, 1,500 g butter, 60 eggs and 2,400 g cocoa.
Result. Butter caps you at 12. Buying 360 g more butter lifts capacity to 15, where eggs take over as the new bottleneck.
Enter each material with its per batch usage and current stock. The calculator ranks them by the units each allows and names the one that is holding production back.
300 g per unit26 units possible
120 g per unit12 units possible
4 pcs per unit15 units possible
80 g per unit30 units possible
This runs entirely in your browser and nothing is saved. Makeable keeps the same calculation running against your live stock, so it re-answers itself every time an order arrives. Start free or read how to calculate production capacity.
Fixing a bottleneck never removes bottlenecks, it promotes the next material in the queue. That is useful information: the ranked list tells you not only what to buy now but how far that purchase gets you before the ceiling changes hands.
Buying to the second lowest number is usually the efficient move. Buying far beyond it ties up cash in stock that cannot become finished units.
Materials are the first constraint for most small producers because they are the easiest to run out of and the easiest to fix. Time and equipment become binding once material supply is steady: an oven that fits eight cakes and runs four cycles a day caps you at 32, whatever the shelf holds.
Calculate both ceilings the same way and take the lower. If the oven caps you below your material ceiling, extra purchasing is wasted until the schedule changes.
Makeable is production capacity and inventory planning software for small businesses that make physical goods from recipes or bills of materials. It stores your materials and recipes, keeps stock current as orders arrive, and runs the calculation on this page continuously rather than on request, so the answer to "can I make this?" is always current.
You can start on the free plan with three products and fifteen materials, see how the production engine works, or compare plans and limits.
The resource that limits output. In recipe based production it is normally the material with the least cover, calculated as stock divided by the amount used per finished unit.
The one with the lowest stock to usage ratio, not the one with the smallest quantity. A material you use in tiny amounts can be plentiful even at low stock.
Set a reorder point for it: the usage per day multiplied by supplier lead time, plus a safety buffer. Makeable tracks the ratio continuously and warns before the material becomes binding.
For information and estimates only. Makeable's formulas, batch limits and margin calculations are mathematical estimates based on your inputs. They are not certified accounting, financial, pricing or tax advice. You are solely responsible for setting your own wholesale and retail prices, ensuring profitability, and checking cost calculations before committing money.