Utilisation is 91%. The next start date is seven weeks out.

The gap between a busy team and an unavailable one is smaller than most capacity plans assume, and the arithmetic behind it is unforgiving.

By Steve 4 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Utilisation is 91%. The next start date is seven weeks out.

A firm running at 91% utilisation looks, on paper, like a well-run firm. Very little paid capacity is idle. The billable target is being met. And yet the sales team is quoting a seven-week wait, clients are asking whether anyone else could start sooner, and the operations manager is spending most of the week rearranging the schedule around whoever shouted loudest. These two facts are not in tension. The second is caused by the first. The relationship between how busy a team is and how long work waits is not…

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