Patent ID: 8427670
Filing Date: 2013-04-23
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of increasing throughput in a print shop environment, including one or more autonomous cells with each of the one or more autonomous cells including at least one resource and being capable of completely processing a job or sub-job type, the method comprising: receiving, by a job production workflow management system, job characteristics pertaining to a plurality of jobs to be processed in the print shop environment; developing a set of data based on the received job characteristics, wherein the developing comprises developing data pertaining to a form type utilized in the print shop environment for each job and a print volume associated with each form type; using the set of data to assign, by the job production workflow management system, a resource to one of the one or more autonomous cells; providing, by the job production workflow management system, the data pertaining to the form type utilized in the print shop environment for each job and the print volume associated with each form type to a warehouse management system; determining, by the warehouse management system, a storage location for pre-printed forms of at least one form type based on the print volume associated with the form type, wherein the storage location is in one or more of the following: receiving, by the job production workflow management system, an insert time and a print time associated with one or more of the plurality of jobs to be processed in the print shop environment; for one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs, determining a ratio of the print time associated with the print job to the insert time associated with the print job; determining whether a bottleneck is present in the print shop environment based on the ratios associated with the one or more jobs, wherein determining whether a bottle neck is present comprises determining that a bottleneck is present if a mean value of the ratios is greater than a first threshold value; and in response to determining that a bottleneck exists, dynamically modifying, by the job production workflow management system, a workflow associated with the print shop environment.