Bottleneck severity
How narrow a node of the network above a company is, under Critical nodes on Flow's Exposure tab: Severe, High or Elevated, resting on what companies disclosed.
A bottleneck is a party, site or port above the company that somebody depends on: the only identified source of an input, a stated single source, half or more of an input, a supplier to two or more companies, or a port that two or more routes pass. A good counts when it has one or two identified producers and two or more companies take it, or when all its producers are in one country. A link Kereon inferred is shown beside the disclosed ones and never raises the severity.
Inputs
- Severe. Critical for two or more companies on disclosed links. Also Severe: critical for one, with no other producer identified, when the company on screen is left without an identified source even if identified alternatives step in. A good is Severe with one identified producer and three or more companies taking it on disclosed links.
- High. Critical for one company on a disclosed link, or a port that three or more disclosed routes pass. A good is High when two or more companies take it on disclosed links and it has at most two producers, or all of them in one country.
- Elevated. Everything else that qualifies, including a node that is critical on inferred links only.
- Downstream. The companies an interruption there would reach within the tiers walked, with no substitution assumed.
How to use it
A Severe node that cuts the company off is a supplier's supplier worth knowing by name. Scenarios walks what an interruption there passes along.
Limitations
A country is never counted as the only source of an input; only a stated share makes one critical. Countries are counted, not weighted, because no volume is known for most parties. Tariffs, sanctions and export controls are not assessed: no dataset of them is connected.
In Kereon
Flow · Exposure. Walks three tiers above the company (four at most). The downstream reach is walked for the sixty strongest candidates.
Also called: bottleneck, bottlenecks, network bottlenecks, where the network above sits.