diff --git a/bin/kibana b/bin/kibana
index 39c61808bbc07..558facb9da32b 100755
--- a/bin/kibana
+++ b/bin/kibana
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ if [ ! -x "$NODE" ]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-NODE_ENV=production exec "${NODE}" --no-warnings --max-http-header-size=65536 $NODE_OPTIONS "${DIR}/src/cli" ${@}
+NODE_OPTIONS="--no-warnings --max-http-header-size=65536 ${NODE_OPTIONS}" NODE_ENV=production exec "${NODE}" "${DIR}/src/cli" ${@}
diff --git a/bin/kibana-plugin b/bin/kibana-plugin
index 8b9ae268c2536..b843d4966c6d1 100755
--- a/bin/kibana-plugin
+++ b/bin/kibana-plugin
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ if [ ! -x "$NODE" ]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-NODE_ENV=production exec "${NODE}" $NODE_OPTIONS --no-warnings "${DIR}/src/cli_plugin" "$@"
+NODE_OPTIONS="--no-warnings ${NODE_OPTIONS}" NODE_ENV=production exec "${NODE}" "${DIR}/src/cli_plugin" "$@"
diff --git a/bin/kibana-plugin.bat b/bin/kibana-plugin.bat
index 5a0ae70760ca1..bf382a0657ade 100755
--- a/bin/kibana-plugin.bat
+++ b/bin/kibana-plugin.bat
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ If Not Exist "%NODE%" (
 )
 
 TITLE Kibana Server
-"%NODE%" %NODE_OPTIONS% --no-warnings "%DIR%\src\cli_plugin" %*
+
+set "NODE_OPTIONS=--no-warnings %NODE_OPTIONS%" && "%NODE%" "%DIR%\src\cli_plugin" %*
 
 :finally
 
diff --git a/bin/kibana.bat b/bin/kibana.bat
index e4e6dfb4776a4..9d8ba359e53af 100755
--- a/bin/kibana.bat
+++ b/bin/kibana.bat
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ If Not Exist "%NODE%" (
   Exit /B 1
 )
 
-"%NODE%" --no-warnings --max-http-header-size=65536 %NODE_OPTIONS% "%DIR%\src\cli" %*
+set "NODE_OPTIONS=--no-warnings --max-http-header-size=65536 %NODE_OPTIONS%" && "%NODE%" "%DIR%\src\cli" %*
 
 :finally
 
diff --git a/src/optimize/base_optimizer.js b/src/optimize/base_optimizer.js
index ac72363b67224..bfeb12f0eba75 100644
--- a/src/optimize/base_optimizer.js
+++ b/src/optimize/base_optimizer.js
@@ -157,7 +157,11 @@ export default class BaseOptimizer {
 
   getThreadLoaderPoolConfig() {
     // Calculate the node options from the NODE_OPTIONS env var
-    const parsedNodeOptions = process.env.NODE_OPTIONS ? process.env.NODE_OPTIONS.split(/\s/) : [];
+    const parsedNodeOptions = process.env.NODE_OPTIONS
+      // thread-loader could not receive empty string as options
+      // or it would break that's why we need to filter here
+      ? process.env.NODE_OPTIONS.split(/\s/).filter(opt => !!opt)
+      : [];
 
     return {
       name: 'optimizer-thread-loader-main-pool',