Supply chains absorb significant friction costs, but is automation the answer?

Supply chain friction costs the added expenses that plague inefficient payment practices culminate in an average of nearly 6,500 lost man hours and an additional £88,725 ($120,612 USD) for companies in the UK, according to Tungsten Network's inaugural Friction Index report. The top sources of friction include the continued high usage of paper invoices, an overabundance of non-purchase order based invoices, high volume of supplier inquiries, and lack of automation technology. Larger companies are more likely to be impacted by higher friction in their payment practices and therefore will have to devote higher resources to the problem, according to the Friction Index. Automation is getting a bad rap these days, especially with the prediction of robots getting too smart and taking over the world, premade meals getting delivered to your front door by drone, and interstates chock full of autonomous semis delivering no touch loads to lights out distribution centers.