Patent ID: 8218170

Claim:
A method for optimizing multiple print streams for post printing processes including an insertion process, the print streams destined for at least a first print stream processing module, for processing printed documents printed by a printer, attached to a first input port of a post processing module including an inserter and a second print stream processing module, for processing printed documents printed by the printer, attached to a second input port of said post processing module including the inserter the method comprising steps of: (a) receiving an input representing job for a plurality of documents to be printed by the printer, each of the documents including one or more pages; (b) determining a first attribute of each document of the plurality of documents; (c) balancing an operation time of the first print stream processing module to process the printed documents with an operation time of the second print stream processing module to process the printed documents, so as to maximize a number of documents processed by the inserter per time period by assigning, based on the determined first attribute, each document to one of a first print stream associated with the first print stream processing module and a second print stream associated with the second print stream processing module; and (d) generating a revised job of the first print stream for the first print stream processing module and the second print stream for the second print stream processing module, wherein: before the assigning each document to be processed to one of the first print stream and the second print stream, the plurality of document documents are presorted into groups, in accordance with a second attribute so that the documents having a same sort of the second attribute are presorted into a same presorted group, the step (c) is performed, with respect to each presorted group, such that, within the same presorted group, the documents are assigned to one of the first print stream and the second print stream based on the first attribute so as to balance the operation times while maintaining the presorted group based on the second attribute, the first attribute of each document set represents a number of pages in each document, and the second attribute relates to delivery destination of inserted documents.