https://www.amazon.ca/UTILIZATION-DEFICIT-Construction-Bleeds-Measures/dp/B0GXGCCKK8
I spent the first years of my construction career waiting to work.
Not because I didn’t want to. Because the system wouldn’t let me.
I’d show up ready to go. Tools in hand. And then I’d wait. Wait for a work package that wasn’t ready. Wait for materials that were delayed in delivery. Wait for the trade ahead of me to finish so I could access the area. Wait for a scaffold that hadn’t been built. Wait for information that hadn’t arrived.
If you’ve ever worked on the tools in construction, you know exactly what I’m talking about. That frustration of being on the clock, wanting to be productive, and having nothing you can do about it.
That frustration never left me. It followed me from the field into project management, into operations, into leadership. And everywhere I went, I saw the same thing: the construction industry has accepted unproductive time as normal. It’s baked into every estimate, absorbed into every budget, and invisible in every cost report.
I refused to accept it.
So I studied it. For years. Across projects. Across trades. Across organizations. I wanted to understand why construction labour productivity has barely improved in decades while every other industry has transformed. I wanted to quantify what everyone on the tools already knows but nobody in the boardroom measures.
What I found is this:
Only 55% of paid labour hours on construction projects produce installed work.
The other 45% disappears into what I call white space — the structural gap between resource supply and resource demand. It’s the piping crew waiting for scaffold. It’s the electrician standing by for mechanical completion. It’s 2,000 workers losing 40 minutes every morning getting through the gate. It’s $12 million on a single project consumed by paid time with no scheduled scope.
And nobody is measuring it.
The construction industry has built world-class systems for telling you what happened yesterday. SPI. CPI. Earned value. Variance analysis. These are rear-view mirrors. They tell you where you’ve been, not where the money is going.
White space is a leading indicator. It tells you where tomorrow’s cost growth is hiding — before it shows up in your forecast.
I wrote a book about it.
The Utilization Deficit: Why Construction Bleeds Money in the Gaps Nobody Measures is available now on Amazon.
This book is for every tradesperson who’s ever sat idle waiting for a system that wasn’t designed for their productivity. It’s for every project manager who’s looked at a labour report and known the numbers didn’t tell the whole story. It’s for every executive who’s watched budgets disappear into gaps nobody can explain.
It captures everything I’ve learned about resource utilization, carrying cost, and the measurement gap that costs the construction industry hundreds of billions of dollars every year.
But more than that — it’s a challenge.
Stop accepting that 45% waste is normal.
Stop being satisfied with reports that only look backward.
Stop paying for nothing.
Start measuring white space.
Start quantifying the untapped productive hours you’re already funding.
Start seeing the millions in savings hiding in the gaps between your trades.
The money is there. It’s always been there. The industry just hasn’t been willing to look.
This book is my attempt to change that. I hope it changes how you see your next project.
Link to the book in the comments.
Resource Management 