NATIONAL-LOUIS UNIVESITY
Resource Management
Needs in Lockbox
Operation
Management and Supervision
Kenneth Stokes
5/11/2010
2
What is Lockbox?
A service offered by banks to companies in which the company receives payments by mail to a
post office box and the bank picks up the payments several times a day, deposits them into the
company's account, and notifies the company of the deposit. This enables the company to put the
money to work as soon as it's received, but the amounts must be large in order for the value
obtained to exceed the cost of the service (Investorwords 2010).
Bank of New York Mellon Lockbox Services is a 24/7 operation. Bank of New York
Mellon has a Wholesale Department. In the wholesale department there are 5 areas. There is a
Mail Sorting area, a Check Processing area, a Image Processing area, a Data Entry area, and last
an Mini Computer Operations area. Depending on the business need, The Site Manager and the
Human Resource Manager must plan accordingly. Depending on the day of the week, managers
must allocate the best resources possible to insure the workflow is running smoothly.
Unfortunately the unthinkable arrises such as the losing business, the economy, staffing,
employees calling off, technical (Hardware and Software) issues.
According to wikipedia, resource management is the efficient and effective deployment
of an organizations resources (Wikipedia). Bank of New York Mellon’s Chicago site has over
300 employees working in 4 various shifts (Days, Evening, Nights and Weekends). A high
volume of mail comes in on the weekend. A high volume of checks are processed on night the
shift, but in the data entry area there is a high volume of work in the system that needs to be
keyed, but not enough keyers to due the work. These are the many challenges that management
deals with on a daily basis. I plan to give scenarios and talk about the issues that arrises in
lockbox such as Staffing, Technology, and Training.
3
Staffing
Staffing Issues
As a I mentioned in the introduction. There is a high volume of incoming mail on
weekends and nights, but not enough mail sorters on the weekend. In the check processing, their
isnt enough check processors for the weekend shift, which means there is old mail sitting around
until the night shift arrives. In the data entry area, their isnt enough data entry operators for the
weekend and night shift, but twice as many data entry operators on the day shift. So what
happens on a Monday for the day shift, the production managers are running around like a
chicken with his head cut off. With all of the volume on the day shift, that means it is mandatory
overtime because there is also a staffing need on the evening shift as well. This can create a
burnout for the data entry operators if they have to work unitl 6pm; Monday thru Wednesday
(Rue and Byars) We are in a deadline driven environment, and if you do not allocate the right
resources to do the job.Customers will complain or worse they will find someone else to do the
job.
Bank of New York Mellon Shifts
1. Day Shift (7am-3pm)
2. Evening Shift (3pm-11pm)
3. Night Shift (11pm-7am)
4. Weekend Shift (7am-5pm)
4
The Solution to Staffing Needs
According to the site analyst, we are overstaffed by 12 people. Management doesn’t need
to hire new staff, what they need to do is allocate staff to the right shifts. Management has asked
co workers if they would volunteer to work on the on shifts. Their has not been a great response,
so management has to put business need over personal need. So management instead has
transferred (Rue and Byars) the lower performer check processors to another shift according to
business need. Management made them switch their schedules from working Monday thru
Friday day shift to working three days on the day shift and the weekend. This will allow more
check processors on the weekend, which will hopefully ensure not another chaotic Monday
morning. Hopefully on Mondays, the old mail will be processed, and the day shift managers can
concentrate on processing same day mail. In the mail sorting area, they transferred (Rue and
Byars) in the check processing to the mail sorting area. That individual also worked Monday thru
Friday day shift and that now individual works Sunday thru Thursday day shift. In the data entry
area, a few employees have volunteered to work on the night shift from Sunday to Thursday.
Management made a couple more switch their schedules from Sunday to Thursday day shift.
Before management insisted employees switch their schedule in the data entry area, their was a
total of 900 batches to key on a Monday morning. After the switch, there is a total of 400
batches to key.
Now customer get their info according to their specification, but now the data entry
operators feel they can breathe a little. The production managers are not as stressed out when it
comes to staffing, but here comes my next issue.
5
Technology Resources
Technical Issues
In the wholesale department, they use two lockbox processing platforms: DMP (Data
Management Product) and Vicor Metevante Platform. Currently wholesale lockbox uses the
DMP platform because it is more cost effective. The DMP platform was implemented to improve
quality in the check processing area, because their were a substantial number of wrong payee
errors. So while this issue was addressed, there are a number of issues in the scanning, data
entry, and computer operations area. After the checks are processed and encoded, a photocopy of
each check are automatically printed out. The printers which by the way are Kyocera’s, are
always jaming, which causes the processor to spend more time fixing paper jams instead of
processing checks. By the way, before the photocopies are printed, they go thru a process called
pending cleaning. A substantial number of batches are stuck this process, which means the
processor can not re associate the work. In the scanning area, when a batch is scanned, it
streamlined to another process called in cleaning. Batches wait in the in cleaning process for
almost 5 minutes before the server retrieves the images to be sent to the data entry stage so that
the keyers can key the information from the image. One hundred batches at a time can be stuck
in the in cleaning process causing a big headache for the customer and the production manager.
Since almost all of the wholesale lockbox accounts are processed on the new platform, batches
are not streamlining like they should be. The Computer Operators are constantly on the hotline
with technical support to fix the matter with no prevail.
6
Solutions to the Technology issues
First lets start in the check processing area. Instead of management purchasing the
cheapest printer on the market to do the job, they should instead research other brand names to
see if they perform the same duties as the Kyocera. So far senior management does not believe
this is a major issue. Effective resource management is allocating the best resources to help
streamline the operation more efficiently. As far as the photocopies are concerned, senior
management has decided to send two programmers to the site to alleviate the issue. Also the
programmers are looking to alleviate the problem in cleaning issue. Management is looking to
transfer all of the wholesale lockboxes back to the Vicor platform. They are also looking to add a
support technician to the site. Senior management is willing to send their top performers overall
to Pittsburgh to be trained by the senior production support manager on the software side as well
as train them on the scanners by sending them to get certified as a Canon Scanner Technician.
That way issues can be addressed on the site instead of calling the help desk hotline and
spending hours at a time on the phone. Management is also looking to allocate resources to make
the computer room much bigger since the I.T. staff will be a bit larger.
7
Training
Bank of New York Employee Training and Orientation Process
The new employees go thru a one day orientation (Rue and Byars). After orientation,
new employees go thru a computer base training (Rue and Byars). The computer training
consists of showing new employees the lockbox process and how one process supports another.
After employee completes the computer training, they must complete a computer base ethics
training to stay in compliance with the Bank of New York Mellon policies. The next step in the
training process is On-the-job-training (Rue and Byars). Usually the Site Trainer trains the new
employee or a work coordinator participates in the process. Usually the site trainer does not
spend enough time training the new employee, which causes the new employee to not always
follow the proper process of lockbox environment.
Current employees must take ethics training and pass a multiple choice exam. You must
pass with 80% or above. If you fail to pass with 80% or above you must retake the exam.
Employees also go thru compliance training in areas such as anti-money laundering The
compliance training is too a computer base training (Rue and Byars). Some times the training
can be too long and not informal enough. One way to keep employees awake during these
training sessions is perhaps make the training sessions more interactive. Training can be really
boring and a waste of time for the company and the employee if they do not comprehend the
material after finishing training. Managers should allocate more resources to get the employees
more involved in the training so when they finish training, the employee will not have
information overload.
8
Work life contribution
Balance
Bank of New York Mellon allocates resources for a program called Wellbeing. The
Wellbeing program consists of Health and wellbeing programs (Bank of New York Mellon):

Health and wellbeing programs

Leave policies and programs designed to assist with both personal and family
responsibilities

Employee Assistance Programs

Flexible work arrangements (subject to business requirements)

Recreational activities and events — in-house or through our Community Program

Activities and events — in-house or through our Community Partnership Program
This program allows employee to seek guidance or assistance in any issue that the individual
is dealing with. The program is confidential which allows the employee to get the right
assistance available.
9
Summary
Management tries to do their best to allocate the proper resources for the best of the
business. Constantly hire employees to help with the workflow does not mean you are fulfilling a
need. Transferring individual to other shifts makes the operation much more cost effective. As
far as the technical issues are concerned, I believe management has started to address the issues
and concerns. Calling technical support can be a very stressful situation for everyone involved.
Having an in house technician that you have coach (Rue and Byars) and trained can somehow
help in the process. Management has to do a better job of allocating the proper resources in
training. It is the site trainer’s job to train the new employee, and show them the proper process
of a lockbox environment. Allocating the proper resources should be for the best of the business,
but sometimes organizations try to go the cheapest route possible to save money.
Work Cited
10
Lockbox Definition. (n.d.). Retrieved from Investor Words:
http://www.investorwords.com/2868/lockbox.html
Resource Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_management
Rue, L. W., & Byars, L. L. (2009). Management skills and application. New York: Mcgraw-Hill
Wellbeing. (n.d.). Retrieved from Bank of New York Mellon:
http://www.bnymellon.com/careers/wellbeing.html