Business Core · Business Assets · Module
Utilisation
How much each asset is actually used against what it could be. The measure that turns an inventory into a management tool.
The idea
How it works
An unused asset costs money continuously and appears on no report as a problem. Utilisation is the measure that makes that cost visible.
The number is only useful against a target. Full utilisation is rarely the right answer — an asset run at a hundred per cent has no capacity to absorb variation, which shows up as delay everywhere downstream.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Measure against realistic capacity
Theoretical maximum is not a useful denominator. Practical capacity, after maintenance and changeovers, is.
- 02
Set a target, not a maximum
The right utilisation leaves headroom. Deciding how much is a real choice rather than an oversight.
- 03
Find the persistent idlers
Assets below target for several periods are candidates for sharing, redeployment or disposal.
- 04
Check licences and subscriptions too
Software seats are assets with the highest waste rate and the lowest visibility.
One level in
The components of utilisation
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Software licences have the highest waste rate of any asset class and the lowest visibility. Audit them first.
The other modules in business assets
Asset register
A current list of what the organisation holds, where it is, and who is responsible for it. Administrative-sounding and the foundation for everything else here.
LearnIntellectual property
What the organisation owns that is not physical — trademarks, patents, copyright, data — and the rights position around each.
LearnLifecycle
Acquisition, maintenance, replacement and disposal, planned rather than triggered by failure. The unplanned version is always more expensive.
Learn