Utilisation in the high 70s is roughly normal; the long-run average sits near 80%. Readings well above that have historically preceded capital spending booms and goods price pressure, because firms must invest rather than simply run harder.
It is the industrial analogue of the output-gap, though the relationship with inflation is much weaker than it once was, since services and imports now dominate the consumption basket.
Example: utilisation falls from 79.8% to 77.1% over a year. That is roughly 2.7 percentage points of newly idle capacity, which removes any pipeline goods price pressure and typically precedes cuts to capital spending plans.
Related: industrial-production, output-gap, durable-goods-orders, business-cycle, potential-gdp