The digital revolution in the banknote industry has been mainly understood as the revolution of digital solutions for payments and therefore a path moving away from cash.
Although digital payments by mobile phones, credit cards and virtual transactions are more and more present in our society, the future of banknotes and coins is far away of disappearing.
Why?
For starting, people in diverse regions still rely on cash for payments as cash is still key to financial inclusion.
In a world of data collecting, people value the privacy and non-traceability of physical money payments.
With low interest rates and people afraid of financial crisis, banknotes seem as a safe solution.
Banknote’s still trending…
The world cash report on 2018 by G4S showed that cash payments are still very important all over the world and that cash is growing in absolute terms and relative to GDP. In Europe 80% of POS (point-of-sale) transactions are done in cash compared to 60% in 2016. In south America, cash in circulation rose 62% in comparison to 2011, as only 45% of the population have a bank account and even less have credit cards. In Asia cash in circulation rose more that 45% and over 75% of online purchases are paid with cash on delivery. Only two countries show a significant decline on cash circulation: Sweden and South Korea.
Despite the advantages of cash, the reality is that producing cash, distributing cash and managing the cash circulation is expensive. The real challenge for the future of banknotes is how to attack the cost of cash. This is where the digitalisation on the manufacturing process of banknotes comes in.
Digitalisation & manufacturing process of banknotes.
The manufacturing industry should rely on enhanced traceability and automatic quality control solutions throughout the entire process of banknotes production. Vision engineering, traceability and Big Data management are key factors in the future for monitoring and digitalization techniques of the banknote industry.
Automatic optical inspection (AOI) techniques are paramount to achieve the above objectives. 100% optical inspection for in-line quality control allows to continuously check for conformity at all steps during the manufacturing process of banknotes. The real time evaluation of quality grade allows to perform potential instant action to save flawless production. Post processing analysis of statistics production allows to improve manufacturing effectiveness. The definition of measurable quality standards for validation of product conformity are key parameters for the success of the implementation and monitoring of in-line automatic control.
The images of the inspected product are stored in database. The AOI technology for traceability guarantees a secure monitoring at all production steps. Defect sheets are automatically detected and sorted of the production line. Any missing sheet is identified, and an investigation process can be performed to deliver post production stock reconciliation audits. Communication between central banks, printing works and paper-mills can be therefore more reliable and secure.
The AOI technology can also help to improve the banknotes lifecycle management. All information stored in database regarding the produced banknotes such as, raw materials, substrate manufacturer, printing manufacturer and quality evaluation can be crossed with information stored in database regarding the banknotes circulation in terms of durability and quality evaluation during its lifecycle.
In-Core Systèmes is deeply involved within the manufacturing process of banknotes…
IN-CORE Systèmes role towards the 4th revolution in the manufacturing process of banknotes consists on providing an integral solution for automatic traceability, quality control and banknote conformity checking throughout all the manufacturing steps. Big Data management solution can be integrated on decision making to improve banknotes’ manufacturing effectiveness.
In an industry deeply engrained to traditions and habits, the role of IN-CORE Systèmes and other companies alike is to build trust on all the collected data and to learn to exploit the data for future banknotes production.
As a frontline player in banknotes production, IN-CORE Systèmes foresees a profound change in the traceability of currency paper. The arrival of the 5G, Big Data and more connected technologies will have a big impact and the industry should be prepared and embrace these new technologies.
Data in possession of paper-mills and printing works will gradually increase with data collected by central banks in charge of cash distribution and cash management. All this information will make it possible to analyse and understand quality, durability and degradation of banknotes in circulation as well as improve future productions of banknotes and circulation.
Big Data will gradually support decision circuits to optimize the quality of production. Moreover, together with DDS it will improve banknotes security identification.
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