Abstract:
Informing the user when consumables and/or customer replaceable units will have to be resupplied, changed and/or replaced, relative to the jobs sent to the image forming system, is a beneficial way to avoid unnecessary printing delays. When a job is added to a job queue or repositioned within the job queue, a warning can be associated with that job, and displayed to the user. With this information, the user can pre-emptively add a consumable and/or to replace a customer replaceable unit to avoid delays and maintain productivity. Alternatively, if such a system fault would occur prior to an urgent job reaching the top of the job queue, the user can manipulate the order and/or presence of the various jobs in the queue to ensure the high-priority job is completed before the consumable is fully exhausted and/or the customer replaceable unit reaches the end of its useful life.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of Invention 
     This invention is directed to an image forming system that has limited amounts of consumable materials and/or that uses customer replaceable units. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Printers, copiers and other types of image forming systems have become ubiquitous office productivity tools for generating tangible copies of original documents and/or electronic documents. Under normal circumstances, a user would send a print request to the image forming system and then retrieve the formed image. 
     Invariably, problems arise when making copies on a recording medium. Problems such as lack of the recording media, depleted toner supplies, consumption of the useful life of customer replaceable units (CRU&#39;s), and/or malfunctions of the customer replaceable units due to old or broken parts, result in lower productivity and additional cost to the user and/or customer. 
     The above-described problems that arise during image production are usually discovered when the user attempts to retrieve the printed documents. However, at this time, the user was unaware that the printing of the documents did not take place. Thus, the user will have to conduct troubleshooting at the image forming system. If the user has requested multiple portions of different documents, the user will have to determine which jobs have been completed and which jobs have not been completed. If there is a job which is of a higher priority and that the user needs urgently, printing of the document corresponding to this job will be delayed until the problem is fixed and all other documents are printed that were sent to the image forming system before the urgent document. This could result in costly delays to the user. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The replacement of a consumable of a image forming system is common with all image forming systems. However, the delays associated with document printing due to replacement of consumables can be avoided. 
     Informing the user with an early status of when consumables and/or customer replaceable units will have to be resupplied, changed and/or replaced, relative to the jobs sent to the image forming system, is a beneficial way to avoid the problems discussed above. With this information provided to the user in advance of a system fault occurring due to a consumable becoming exhausted or a customer replaceable unit reaching the end of its useful life, the user is provided with an early opportunity to add a consumable and/or to replace a customer replaceable unit to avoid delays and maintain productivity. Alternatively, if the user was aware that such a system fault would occur prior to an urgent job reaching the top of a queue, the user could manipulate the order and/or presence of the various jobs in the queue to ensure the high-priority job is completed before the consumable is fully exhausted and/or the customer replaceable unit reaches the end of its useful life. 
     This invention provides systems and methods for notifying a user when a consumable is likely to be exhausted. 
     This invention separately provides systems and methods for notifying a user when a customer replaceable unit is likely to reach the end of its useful life. 
     This invention separately provides systems and methods to enable a user to efficiently manage the production of documents in view of one or more consumables in the image forming system during image production becoming depleted. 
     This invention separately provides systems and methods that identify the status of consumables and/or customer replaceable units in an image forming system relative to the jobs assigned to that image forming system. 
     In various exemplary embodiments, the systems and methods of this invention use sensors to determine the useable amount of an image production supply material that remains available to the image forming system to form images. 
     In various other exemplary embodiments, the image forming system&#39;s controller can determine whether this image forming system will be able to complete a particular image job based on the status of the various consumables and/or customer replaceable units. 
     In various other exemplary embodiments, the image forming system can determine whether it is able to complete the job based on available supplies of consumables, remaining useful life of customer replaceable units and/or requirements of that job identification portion. If the job is not able to be completed, the image forming system alerts the user that the job cannot be completed. This allows the image forming system, such as a printer, to warn the user when image production supplies are going to run out and/or when a customer replaceable unit will reach the end of its useful life. 
     In various exemplary embodiments, the user can promote a job within a job queue to allow that job to be completed ahead of an earlier-scheduled job. Alternatively, a job can be demoted behind other jobs the user deems more important to complete. Therefore, the image forming system allows particular jobs to be advanced in the job queue so that image production efficiency may be improved. 
     These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Various exemplary embodiments of this invention will be described in detail with reference to the following figures, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  shows an exemplary embodiment of an image forming system; 
         FIG. 2  shows an exemplary user interface according to this invention; 
         FIG. 3  shows an exemplary user interface showing an internal mechanical view of the image forming system of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of the control system of  FIG. 1  according to this invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart outlining one exemplary embodiment of a method for determining if a job can be completed according to this invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart outlining a first exemplary embodiment of a method for estimating the amount needed of a selected consumable; 
         FIG. 7  is a flowchart outlining a second exemplary embodiment of a method for determining the amount needed of a selected consumable; and 
         FIGS. 8A and 8B  are a flowchart outlining one exemplary embodiment of a method for changing the order of a job in a job queue according to this invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  shows an exemplary embodiment of an image forming system  100  according to the invention. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the image forming system  100  includes an image control system  400 , one or more user input devices  110 , a display device  120 , an image input device  130 , and an image production device  140 . The image forming device  100  is also connected to a network  500  over a link  510 . The image production device  140  contains a toner supply subsystem  150 , a media supply subsystem  160  and a number of customer replaceable units  170 . The toner supply subsystem  150  includes any desired number of individual toner supply devices, such as the first-fourth toner supply devices  152 ,  154 ,  156  and  158 , respectively shown in  FIG. 1 . Each toner supply device  152 – 158  contains a limited amount of a distinct type (color, composition and/or the like) of toner that is gradually consumed as the image forming system  100  forms images on recording sheets according to various jobs. Each toner supply device  152 – 158  also includes a sensor useable to determine an amount of toner remaining in that toner supply device. 
     The user input devices  110  can be one or more of any known or later-developed input device usable by the user to input data and/or commands to the image forming device. It should also be appreciated that one or more of the one or more user input devices can be combined with the display device, such as in a touch-screen. The image input device  130  can be any known or later-developed device usable to input image data for a job, such as a scanner. It should also be appreciated that, in various exemplary embodiments, the image input device  130  can be omitted from the image forming system  100 . 
     The control system  400  receives jobs from the user, either over the network  500  or using the image input device  130 . Each job indicates such things as the particular document, file or image to be formed and the number of copies to be formed. The control system  400  analyzes the job to determine what different types of toner will be needed, such as black toner for black and white character images or colors such as cyan, magenta, yellow and black for color picture images, and how much of each different type of toner. 
     The control system  400  also receives information from the image production device  140 . As indicated above, various sensors provided in the image production device  140  can be used indicate the useable amount of toner in the toner supply units  152 ,  154 ,  156  and  158 , the amount of recording medium remaining in each of the supply trays  162 ,  164  and  166 , and the status of each of the customer replaceable units  172 ,  174 ,  176  and  178 . This information is provided to the control system  400 . 
     In various exemplary embodiments, the control system  400  can determine the useable amount of toner in the toner supply units  152 ,  154 ,  156  and  158 , the amount of recording medium remaining in each of the supply trays  162 ,  164  and  166 , and the status of each of the customer replaceable units  172 ,  174 ,  176  and  178  by calculating the difference between the available amount of that consumable, the amount of useful life of that customer replaceable unit and the amount of that consumable or the amount of that useful life that has already been consumed, respectively. 
     In various other exemplary embodiments according to this invention, a user can enter the initial available amount of a consumable or, the amount of useful life into the controller  400  when a consumable or a customer replaceable unit, respectively, will be used with the image forming system  100 . The user can enter this information, which is generally provided with the consumable or customer replaceable unit. Alternatively, the controller  400  can also determine the initial available amount of the consumable or useful life of a customer replaceable unit by sensing the information provided with that consumable or that customer replaceable unit, respectively. 
     The control system  400  determines whether the toner supply units  152 ,  154 ,  156  and/or  158 , the supply trays  162 ,  164  and/or  166 , and/or the customer replaceable units  172 ,  174 ,  176  and/or  178  contain adequate amounts of toner, image recording media and/or useful life, respectively, to complete a particular job. If all of the toner supply devices  152 – 158  that will be used for that job and all of the supply trays  162 – 166  that will be used for that job contain consumable material sufficient to complete that job, and all of the consumer replaceable units  170  that will be used for that job have sufficient remaining useful life to complete that job, then that job proceeds as requested. 
     However, if the control system  400  determines that one or more of the consumer replaceable units  170  that will be used for that job does not have enough useful life left, and/or the amount of recording media remaining in one or more of the supply trays  162 ,  164  and  166  that will be used for that job and/or the amount of toner in one or more of the toner supply devices  152 – 158  that will be used for that job is inadequate to complete that job, the control system  400  will generate a warning message to alert the user that that requested job cannot be currently completed. 
     For example, the control system  400  can display a warning message or alert on the display device  120  relative to a job identification portion of a displayed image, such as a graphical user interface, that corresponds to that job. The warning message or alert can be any method of alerting the user, such as a warning icon, a flashing light and/or an audible noise. Any other known or later-developed warning techniques or methods are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. 
       FIG. 2  shows an exemplary embodiment of a user interface  200  according to this invention that is displayable on the display device  120 . The exemplary user interface  200  may also be displayed on a display device of a remotely located computer connectable to the image forming system  100  over the network  500 . The user interface  200  includes a tool bar  210  and a title bar  220 . The user interface  200  includes a plurality of job identification portions  222 ,  224 ,  226 ,  228  and  230 . The tool bar  210  can also include one or more of a demote button  218 , a promote button  216 , a manual button  214  and an auto button  212 . 
     Each job identification portion  222 – 230  corresponds to, and can indicate information about, one of the jobs that are present in a job queue of the control system  400 . In various exemplary embodiments, as shown in  FIG. 2 , each job identification portion  222 – 230  indicates the size of the recording media to be used for the corresponding job, the number of original pages in the document of that job, and/or the number of copies to be made for that job. It should also be appreciated that, in various exemplary embodiments, the job identification portions  222 – 230  can provide other information to aid the user. 
     In various exemplary embodiments according to this invention, a warning message or alert icon  240  can be displayed in none, any one or more, or all, of the job indication portions  222 – 230 . Each warning message or alert icon  240  indicates one or more potential system faults regarding one or more of the toner supply devices  152 – 158 , one or more of the supply trays  162 – 166  and/or one or more of the customer replaceable units  172 – 178  that are expected to occur before the job corresponding to the job identification portion, with which that warning message or alert icon  240  is associated, can be completed. 
     Thus, a warning message or alert icon  240  will appear in the user interface  200  to indicate a particular job identification portion where, for example, it is expected that one or more of the toner supply devices  152 ,  154 ,  156  and  158  will need refilling to complete the corresponding job. After the warning message or alert  240  icon appears, the user can move a selection device or the like relative to that warning message or alert  240  to hover over or otherwise activate that warning message or alert icon  240 . This allows the user to determine the specific reason for the alert status. For example, a message displayed in response to hovering over the warning message or alert icon  240  displayed relative to the job identification portion  228  could indicate that “cyan toner needs to be added” to complete the job associated with that job identification portion  228 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , in response to selecting a particular warning message or alert icon  240 , a full screen image of the area that requires user interaction can be displayed to the user or the display device  120 . 
     Additional warning messages or alert icons  240  can be displayed in the job identification portion  228  or any of the other job identification portions  222 – 226  and  230  to indicate other actions that need to be performed by the user. That is, two or more warning messages or alert icons  240  could be displayed in the same job identification portion if, for example, two different consumables would be exhausted before the job corresponding to that job identification portion could be completed. For example, a second warning message or alert icon  240  could be displayed on the user interface  200  to indicate that in order to complete a different job, refilling of one of the trays  160 ,  162  or  164  with a recording medium will need to be performed. Similarly, a third warning message or alert icon  240  can be displayed to warn the user that one of the customer replaceable units  272 – 278  needs to be replaced. 
     The warning message or alert icon  240  shows the user when a problem is expected to arise in view of the sequence of jobs scheduled in the job queue. This sequence of jobs in the job queue is reflected by the order of the corresponding job identification portions displayed in the user interface  200 . Thus, a user can know that the image forming system will require maintenance during a particular job. As a result, the user also knows that any subsequent job after that job, that also requires the consumable or customer replaceable unit associated with that warning message or alert icon  240 , will also not be able to be completed. Furthermore, if the image forming system  100  is not able to automatically stop or is able to skip a job that cannot be completed to perform a job that can be completed, then none of the jobs after that job will be able to be completed. 
     In one example of an exemplary embodiment of the user interface  200 , shown in  FIG. 2 , one job could be more urgent to the user than another job. That is, for example, the job corresponding to the job identification portion  230  might have a high priority. If the user were not advised of the problems in completing the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228  until after the problem actually occurred, the user will not be able to complete the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228  without first addressing the problem. If cyan toner is needed to complete the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228 , the user might be out of cyan toner and have to reorder. If the job corresponding to the job identification portion  230  also needs cyan toner, the result is that neither of the jobs corresponding to the job identification portions  228  or  230 , or any subsequent job that requires cyan toner, can be completed. 
     In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, after a user is notified by a warning message or alert icon  240  that an action needs to be taken in order for the job corresponding to the associated job identification portion to be completeable, the user can reorder the displayed sequence of the job identification portions, and thus reorder the jobs in the job queue. This will allow the user to complete as many jobs as possible before it becomes impossible to avoid the problem associated with the warning message or the alert icon  240 . It should be appreciated that one or more warning messages or alert icons  240  can be displayed indicating various problems with the job identification portions. 
     In various exemplary embodiments of the user interface  200 , such as that shown in  FIG. 2 , the auto button  212 , the manual button  214 , the promote button  216  and/or the demote button  218  allow the user to reorganize the sequence of job identification portions displayed in the user interface, and thus the order of the corresponding jobs in the job queue. Of course, it should be appreciated that the auto button  212 , the manual button  214 , the promote button  216  and/or the demote button  218  may each be implemented using a check box or other selection widget, as is well known in the art. In addition, each of the auto button  212 , the manual button  214 , the promote button  216 , and the demote button  218  may be arranged anywhere within the user interface  200 , as is well known in the art. 
     One example of the operation of the exemplary embodiment set forth in  FIG. 2 , will be described below. In this example, the job corresponding to the job identification portion  230  has a higher priority than the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228 . In operation, the warning message or alert icon  240  in the job identification portion  228  can signal to the user that, for example, one of the toner units  152 ,  154 ,  156 , and  158  needs refilling or replacing in order to complete the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228 . Accordingly, the user can prioritize the job identification portions, and thus the jobs to be completed. 
     For example, the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228  requires 25 sets of 5 originals, or 125 printed sheets. The job corresponding to the job identification portion  230  requires 10 sets of 1 original, or only 10 printed sheets. Thus, the user can activate the promote button  216  to advance the job  230  above the job  228 , allowing the job corresponding to the job identification portion  230  to be printed before the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228 . 
     One advantage of promoting one job over another is to allow a higher priority job to be completed before a job deemed by the user to be less important. In addition, if all jobs are of equal importance, then many small jobs rather than one large job can be completed before the refilling or replacement of one of the toner units  152 ,  154 ,  156 , and  158 . This will further increase the use of the toner units  152 ,  154 ,  156 , and  158  and allow more jobs to be completed and minimizing waste of toner and other material. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment of the systems and methods of this invention, the control system  400  can prevent any job from being started if any warning message or alert icon  240  associated with the job identification portion corresponding to that job has not yet been satisfactorily addressed. The warning message or alert icon  240  might indicate that the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228  requires more cyan toner than is available to complete that job in the image forming system  100 . Thus, warning message or alert icon  240  will indicate inadequate amount of cyan toner. 
     In order to satisfactorily address this warning message or alert icon  240 , the user will have to supply more cyan toner to the image forming system  100 . Additionally, the user can respond to the warning message or alert icon  240  by promoting a job corresponding to a job identification portion that requires an amount of cyan toner which is less than or equal to the available amount of cyan toner. However, until the user satisfies the warning message or alert icon  240 , the control system  400  will not allow promotion of any job identification portion ahead of the job identification portion  228  if the job corresponding to such a job identification portion that the user wishes to promote would not be completable by the current amount of cyan toner. 
     However, it should be appreciated that, if the job corresponding to the identification portion  230  is directed to a black and white image, thus requiring no cyan toner, in this exemplary embodiment, the control system  400  will allow the job identification portion  230  to be promoted ahead of the job identification portion  228 . As a result, the job corresponding to the job identification portion  230  is moved in the job queue ahead of the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228 . Additionally, the user is allowed to promote any other job ahead of the job corresponding to the job identification portion  228  as long as any cyan toner required by the promoted job corresponding to the job identification portion is less than an available unallocated amount. If a problem will exist with the promoted job, the control system  400  will notify the user with another warning message or alert icon  240 . 
     Thus, when a warning message or alert icon  240  appears, the user is able to reorganize the order of any of the job identification portions and thus the corresponding jobs, so long as the new order of the jobs in the job queue is completable in view of any current problems indicated by that and/or any other warning message or alert icon  240 . 
     In various exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciated that the control system  400  can be designed to automatically respond to some warning messages or alert icons without the assistance of a user. If a user does not address the warning message a warning message or alert icon  240  in a given period of time, the control system  400  of the image forming system  100  can automatically promote at least one job which can be completed without causing the same warning message or alert icon to be displayed in the corresponding job identification portion and/or without triggering another warning message or alert icon  240  to expedite completion of the jobs in the job queue. The amount of time for the image forming system  100  to wait before it automatically responds can be set by the user. 
     Additionally, the user can use the automatic button  212  to request the image forming system  100  to automatically reorder at least one job in response to a warning message or alert icon  240  being displayed without waiting for a given period of time to elapse. 
     In another exemplary embodiment of the systems and methods according to this invention, one or more job identification portions can be reorganized using the demote button  218 . The demote button  218  allows the user to place a job identification portion, such as a job identification portion having a warning message or alert icon, behind other pending job identification portions, thus, moving the job corresponding to the demoted job identification portion behind other jobs in the job queue. Using the demote button  218  can save the time if the user knows the job corresponding to the job identification portion with the alert does not have a high priority. The one job identification portion can be demoted instead of having to promote each of a number of other job identification portions. Thus, the jobs corresponding to the job identification portions having a higher priority get printed and the job corresponding to the job identification portion with alert icon can be addressed at the earliest convenience of the user. 
       FIG. 3  shows an exemplary embodiment of a graphical representation  300  of the image forming system  100  according to the invention. The graphical representation  300  of the image forming system  100  can be a full screen information page which is displayed when an warning message or alert icon  240  is activated or selected. 
     The graphical representation  300  includes for example, one or more toner objects  310 ,  330 ,  340  and  350  that represent the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toner supply devices  152 – 158 , respectively, of the image forming system  100 . Toner of other colors can be stored in the toner objects  310 ,  330 ,  340  and  350  without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. An object  360  represents the image production device  140 . 
     When an warning message or alert icon  240  indicates that there is a problem, the user can activate the warning message or alert icon  240  by clicking on it with a mouse, touching a touch screen, using voice activation, or any other known or later-developed method for activating or selecting an icon. Any known or later developed method in addition to or instead of the graphical representation  300  can be used to indicate which element of the image forming system  100  is in need of servicing, such as a flashing image over a particular object, an icon with an arrow pointing to a particular object, and the like. In other exemplary embodiments, different representations including text and/or graphics may be used to signify maintenance actions that need to be done on the image forming system  100 . 
     Upon activation or selecting the warning message or alert icon  240 , a graphical representation screen, such as that shown in  FIG. 3 , can be displayed to indicate what problem needs to be addressed. The graphical representation device  300  shows a hatched object, such as the toner object  310 , to indicate that that object needs to be serviced. Once the user is aware of this problem, the situation can be taken care of as best seen fit by the user. As discussed above, the user can promote/demote job identification portions or printers. 
     Other information can be displayed to the user using the graphical representation  300  of the image forming system  100 , such as the percentage amount of a particular toner supply that remains available for use or, similarly, how many more pages can be printed on the recording medium before a particular toner runs out. Additionally, the graphical representation  300  of the image forming system  100  can provide directions to the user for fixing the problem. A back button  320  of the graphical representation  300  allows the user to return to the user interface  200  shown in  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 4  shows one exemplary embodiment of the control system  400  according to this invention. As shown in  FIG. 4 , the control system  400  includes a input/output interface  410 , a controller  420 , and a memory  430 . The memory  430  may include a past usage memory portion  432  and a job queue portion  434 . 
     The image input device  130  passes a job to the input/output interface  410 . The input/output interface  410  passes the job to the controller  420 . The controller  420  stores the job in the job queue portion  434  of the memory  430 . 
     The controller  420  determines the amount of one or more customer replaceable materials and/or the amount of useful life of one or more customer replaceable units needed to process the new job. The controller  420  makes these determinations based on sensor signals or the like received from the various devices storing consumables and/or from the various customer replaceable units. Alternatively, the controller  420  can maintain a running count of the use of one such device, such as a particular customer replaceable unit, that indicates for example, the amount of useful life of that customer replaceable unit that has already been consumed. This information is transferred to and stored in the past usage memory portion  432 . The past usage memory portion  432  stores the determined one or more material amounts and/or the one or more useful life amounts needed to complete that job, as well as the amounts of one or more consumable materials and/or the remaining amounts of useful life for one or more customer replaceable units, as well as an indication of whether a job can be completed with the remaining unallocated amounts of customer replaceable materials and remaining unallocated amounts of useful life. 
     The controller  420  controls the image production device  140  to produce images corresponding to a particular job, as is well known in the art. The controller  420  provides a warning that the job corresponding to a particular job identification portion cannot be produced based on the determined amounts of consumable materials and/or amounts of useful life of customer replaceable units for that job relative to the current remaining unallocated amounts. This warning will trigger the display of a warning message or alert icon  240  as discussed above with respect to  FIGS. 1–3 . 
       FIG. 5  shows a flowchart outlining one exemplary embodiment of a method for alerting a user concerning low amounts of one or more consumables and/or low amounts of remaining life of one or more customer replaceable units. Operation begins in step S 100  and proceeds to step S 200  where, a job request is received. In step S 300 , either a first or a next consumable is selected as the current consumable. It should be appreciated that, in this context, “consumable” includes both replaceable materials that are consumed and customer replaceable units that have useful lifetimes that can be consumed. Next, in step S 400 , the current total remaining amount of the current consumable is determined. Then, in step S 500 , the current unallocated amount of the current total remaining amount of the current consumable. The current unallocated amount is that amount of the total remaining amount of the current consumable that has not been previously allocated to jobs that are already in the queue ahead of the received job request and that have not yet been started and/or that have not yet been completed. Operation then continues to step S 600 . 
     In step S 600 , the amount of the current consumable to complete the received job is estimated. Then, in step S 700 , a determination is made whether the estimated amount needed for the current consumable is less than or equal to the remaining unallocated amount of the current consumable. If the estimated amount of the current consumable needed is more than the remaining unallocated amount of the current consumable, operation continues to step S 800 . Otherwise, operation jumps directly to step S 900 . In step S 800 , an alert notification is associated with the received job request. Operation then continues to step S 900 . 
     In step S 900 , the determined estimated amount needed of the current consumable is allocated to the received job request. 
     In step S 1000 , a determination is made whether any consumables remain unanalyzed. If so, operation returns to step S 300 . Otherwise, operation continues to step S 1100 , where the received job is added to the job queue. Next, in step S 1200 , the list of displayed job identification portions is updated to display a job identification portion for the received job request, including any alert notifications associated with the received job request. Operation then continues to step S 1300 , where the method ends. 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart outlining in greater detail a first exemplary embodiment of the method for estimating the amount needed of the current consumable for the received job of step S 600 . Beginning in step S 600 , operation continues to step S 605 , where, an average amount of the current consumable used in past image forming operations is determined. Next, in step S 610 , the approximate number of pages of the received job request is determined. Then in step S 615 , the determined average amount is multiplied by the number of pages to determine the amount required for the received job request. Operation then continues to step S 620 , where operation returns to step S 700 . 
       FIG. 7  is a flowchart outlining in greater detail a second exemplary embodiment of the method for determining the amount of consumable needed for the received job request of step S 600 . Beginning in step S 600 , operation continues to step S 640 , where the total amount needed for the current consumable is set to zero. Then, in step S 645 , the first/next page of the received job request is selected. Next, in step S 650 , the amount needed of the current consumable for the selected page is determined. Operation then continues to step S 655 . 
     In step S 655 , the determined amount needed for the selected page is added to the total amount needed. Next, in step S 660 , a determination is made whether there are any unanalyzed pages remaining. If so, operation returns to step S 645 . Otherwise, if there are no unanalyzed pages remaining, operation continues to step S 665 , where the total amount needed is multiplied by the number of copies indicated in the received job request to obtain the actual amount needed. Operation then continues to step S 670 , where operation returns control to step S 700 . 
       FIGS. 8A and 8B  are a flowchart outlining one exemplary embodiment of a method for promoting one job over another job in the job queue. Beginning in step S 2000 , operation continues to step S 2100 , where a job selected for promotion is set as the current job. Next, in step S 2200 , the new location of the current job in the job queue is either automatically determined or an input is received from a user identifying the new location. Then, in step S 2300 , the first or next consumable is selected as the current consumable. It should be appreciated that, in this context, as above, “consumable” includes both replaceable materials that are consumed and customer replaceable units that have useful lifetimes that can be consumed. Operation then continues to step S 2400 . 
     In step S 2400 , the current total remaining amount of the current consumable is determined. Then, in step S 2500 , the current unallocated amount of the current total remaining amount of the current consumable is determined. The current unallocated amount is that amount of the total remaining amount of the current consumable that has not been previously allocated to jobs that are already in the queue ahead of the current job and that have not yet been started and/or that have not yet been completed. Next, in step S 2600 , a determination is made whether the amount needed is less than or equal to the determined unallocated amount. If not, control proceeds to step S 2700 . Otherwise, if the amount needed is less than or equal to the unallocated amount, control proceeds to step S 2800 . 
     In step S 2700 , the job selected for promotion is prevented from being promoted. Operation then jumps to step S 4000 . In contrast, in step S 2800 , a determination is made whether any consumables still remain to be analyzed. If so, operation returns to step S 2300 . Otherwise, operation proceeds to step S 2900 , where the current job is moved to the promotion location. The promotion location indicates the jobs in the job queue which are able to be completed given the current amount of consumables. Operation then continues to step S 3000 . 
     In step S 3000 , the jobs located between the promotion location and previous location of the current job are demoted. Next, in step S 3100 , the first/next demoted job that was demoted in step S 3000  is selected as the current job. Then, in step  3200 , the first/next consumable is selected as the current consumable. Operation then proceeds to step S 3300 . 
     In step S 3300 , the current unallocated amount of the current total remaining amount of the current consumable is determined. The current unallocated amount is that amount of the total remaining amount of the current consumable that has not been previously allocated to jobs that are already in the queue ahead of the current job and that have not yet been started and/or that have not yet been completed. Then, in step S 3400 , a determination is made whether the amount needed is less than or equal to the unallocated amount. If not, control proceeds to step S 3500 . Otherwise, operation jumps to step S 3600 . 
     In step S 3500 , a new alert notification is associated with the current job. Operation then continues to step S 3600 . In step S 3600 , the determined estimated amount needed of the selected consumable is associated with current job. Next, in step S 3700 , a determination is made whether any consumables are unanalyzed for the current job. If so, operation returns to step S 3200 . Otherwise, operation proceeds to step S 3800 , where a determination is made whether all of the demoted jobs demoted in step S 3000  have been analyzed. If not, operation returns to step S 3100 . Otherwise, operation proceeds to step S 3900 , where the list of displayed job identification portions is updated to display the job identification portions in the order corresponding to the new order of the jobs in the job queue, as well as any alert notifications associated with those jobs. Operation then proceeds to step S 4000 , where operation of the method ends. 
     The control system  400  is, in various exemplary embodiments, implemented on a programmed general purpose computer. However, the control system  400  can also be implemented on a special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit elements, an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signal processor a hardwired electronic or logic circuit such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device such as a PLD, PLA, FPGA, or PAL, or the like. In general, any device, capable of implementing a finite state machine that is in turn capable of implementing the flowcharts shown in  FIGS. 5–8B , can be used to implement the control system  400 . 
     While this invention has been described in conjunction with the exemplary embodiments outlined above, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiments of the invention, as set forth above, are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.