Utilisation went from 78% to 91%. Lead times tripled.

Pushing a delivery team closer to full occupancy looks like free capacity. The maths of queues says it is the most expensive capacity you will ever buy.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Utilisation went from 78% to 91%. Lead times tripled.

A firm tightens its scheduling, trims the gaps between jobs and lifts billable utilisation from the high seventies into the low nineties. On paper it has found something close to a sixth more capacity without hiring anyone. Then the complaints start. Work that used to leave in three weeks now takes eight or nine. Nobody is idle, nothing has been dropped, no single job takes longer than it used to, and yet the business has become visibly slower. This is not a management failure. It is arithmetic, and it is…

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