Howdy.
Whenever an assembler reaches a critical threshold for output, it will no longer pull input. However, the output may not be at max because of a circuit or logistic condition on the output inserter. This combination causes Bottleneck to incorrectly report that there isn't enough input (red alert icon), when in fact, the assembler is effectively paused (yellow pause icon). A user at-a-glance will see red errors smattered across her factory, when in fact, everything is operating as it should.
Cheers.