Definition
Loss due to friction in the physical sense means the conversion of kinetic energy into heat or deformation caused by friction as well as the loss of substance due to abrasion.
In the economic sense, friction losses occur in transactions, i.e. when a good or service is handed over at a technologically separable interface. These friction losses are referred to as transaction costs. If interfaces are optimised, frictional losses can be minimised.
For this purpose, interfaces are to be defined as points of contact of spatio-temporally related elements of a coherently defined and structured workflow. Each work process must be taken over at such an interface in a defined state and completed at the next with a defined result and handed over to the following station in the process chain. This procedure reduces losses in efficiency, effectiveness and information.
In general, in an economic and figurative sense, friction losses occur at interfaces of overall processes and workflows, but also in the (division of labour) cooperation of people when goods, services or information are not handed over optimally. The consequence is a loss of efficiency, effectiveness and information due to delays in processes, reduction of material assets due to loss, damage or reduction of the number of manufactured products, material losses due to lower sales revenues or bonuses as well as due to reservations, resistance or fears on the part of the people involved.
Bettina Dirks
