In the last part of this mini-series, we looked at the
need and potential benefits of optimizing the cassette configuration inside your ATMs . In this part we will have a closer look into the how: How do I find out if my configuration has a potential for improvement, and how do I determine what exactly I need to change?
The key word in this context is utilization. Let’s get a little technical for a moment: The weekly utilization rate of a cassette tells us the average note flow in relation to the capacity of a cassette. What does that mean? If a cassette has a capacity of 3,500 notes and then dispenses 3,500 notes in a week, the weekly utilization rate for this cassette is 100%. The same goes for a deposit cassette in which 3,500 notes were deposited over the course of a week. Again, the weekly utilization rate is 100%.
By the way, if you have several cassettes that dispense the same denomination, you calculate the utilization rate for all of these cassettes combined by summing up the individual capacities.
So, a utilization rate above 100% means that a cassette was used more than its capacity could handle at once.
If it was a dispense cassette it ran empty before the week was over.
If it is a deposit cassette it was full before the end of the week.
In both cases an intervention – likely by the cash-in-transit (CIT) provider – was necessary before the week was over, leading to a high number of CIT visits.
On the other hand, a utilization rate below 100% indicates that fewer notes of the denomination were used than were available. While this can extend the time between CIT visits, simply assigning a high capacity to one denomination may not be ideal. As discussed in Part 1, consumers now expect to be able to choose their denomination mix at the ATM. Meanwhile, inflation increases the volume of withdrawals, making the addition of higher-value denominations more appealing.
