IRD Bank

Building Future Relationships with Technology

Most banks take cash deposits, and modern banks don’t use people to count, sort, and verify that cash, they use very sophisticated pieces of equipment to do the job quicker, and some say, arguably, better than humans. Central Banks, for example, take cash deposits from their member commercial or retail banks. These cash deposits have to be counted to ensure the correct value is credited to the customer account, sorted into fit banknotes (that can go back into circulation) or unfit banknotes (ready to be destroyed), and verified to ensure that each banknote is authentic.

IRD Bank, a large central bank, currently employs 2725 people, 275 of which sit in rooms and count, sort, and verify cash for eight hours each day. IRD Bank has just contracted with GND Technologies, a major supplier of banknote sorting equipment, to automate this process. The plan is to install six high-speed sorting machines each capable of counting, sorting, and verifying 2 million banknotes in an eight-hour day. The cash staff will be reduced to a mere 10-person team following the installations, and with the new equipment, is expected to be able to process a total of 12 million banknotes each day.

The machines produced by GND use optical, sound, and touch technologies to process the banknotes. Banknotes are fed into the machines and travel along conveyer belts to cameras, sensors, detectors, and speaker-microphone assemblies that use sophisticated algorithms to test each banknote. A thickness sensor at the hopper (where the banknotes are fed into the machine) ensures that only one note at a time enters the machine. The banknote travels via conveyer to cameras that "look" at the front and back of the banknote and compares the images to control images stored in its database. If the images match, the machine passes the banknote on to a series of authentication detectors that test various things in the note to determine if it is real. If it is real, the machine passes the banknote on to a condition detector that taps the banknote with a small hammer and a microphone below "listens" to the sound. Worn out banknotes make duller sounds than newer banknotes when tapped. Cameras further down the path also check for soil and graffiti on the banknote. If the banknote is too worn or has too much soil or graffiti or some combination of these, the banknote is sent by conveyor to a shredder and destroyed. Banknotes, on average, last for about 8 months in circulation, before they are destroyed by IRD Bank.

To help GND engineers calibrate the machines properly, IRD has compiled a set of data using GND test equipment. The data is shown below:

Using the data, help GND engineers build a model that adequately explains which criteria should be used to shred a banknote. Be specific. Formulate your technique well in a well-designed experiment to produce a 7 - 10 page report, complete with test results.

Price: $16.74

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 12 pages, 474 words and 11 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document