The team is 85% utilised. Lead times have doubled.

Utilisation and lead time don't trade off in a straight line, and the last ten points of capacity cost far more than they appear to.

By Steve 4 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The team is 85% utilised. Lead times have doubled.

A pattern that shows up repeatedly in professional services, installation businesses, workshops and internal delivery teams: utilisation climbs from the low seventies into the mid-eighties over a year or two, everyone congratulates themselves on the efficiency gain, and then the complaints start. Jobs that used to take three weeks take six. Nothing broke. No one left. Volume rose maybe 15%. Lead time rose 100%. This is not a management failure and it is not a mystery. It is arithmetic, and it is one of the few pieces of operational mathematics…

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