Utilisation hit 92%. The lead time tripled.

Everyone agrees idle capacity is waste. The arithmetic of queues says the last ten points of utilisation are the most expensive thing in the business.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Utilisation hit 92%. The lead time tripled.

A workshop, a studio, a claims team or a professional services firm reaches the point where the schedule is full. Utilisation is running in the low nineties. On any conventional reading this is excellent: the assets are sweating, the people are busy, nobody is standing about. Then the complaints start. Jobs that used to turn round in a fortnight take six weeks. Customers begin asking for dates before they ask for prices. And nobody can point to a single thing that went wrong, because nothing did. This is not a…

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