Patent ID: 8190488

Claim:
A system of evaluating an impact of consolidating a plurality of print shops on inventory levels comprising: a processor; and a processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processor, wherein the processor-readable storage medium contains one or more programming instructions for performing a method of evaluating an impact of consolidating a plurality of print shops on inventory levels, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of print shops from an enterprise to consolidate into a consolidated print shop, wherein each of the plurality of print shops is a unique document production entity, identifying an inventory policy for each identified print shop, for each identified print shop, receiving corresponding job demand information, determining a total inventory requirement for each of the identified print shops, wherein the total inventory requirement for each identified print shop comprises a total average inventory level and a total order-up-to level associated with the identified print shop, determining a plurality of consolidated inventory requirements for the consolidated print shop, wherein the consolidated print shop is a unified print shop that is capable of processing all print jobs received by the identified plurality of print shops and the consolidated inventory requirements comprise a consolidated average inventory level and a consolidated order-up-to level, determining a plurality of consolidation combinations for the plurality of print shops to consolidate, wherein each of the plurality of consolidation combinations defines two or more of the plurality of print shops to consolidate and includes an inventory reduction percentage associated with the combination of the two or more of the plurality of print shops to consolidate, assigning a rank to each of the plurality of consolidation combinations, the rank determined based upon a comparison of the inventory reduction percentage for each of the plurality of consolidation combinations and the consolidated inventory requirements, and displaying, to a user, an ordered list including each of the plurality of consolidation combinations ordered by assigned rank, one or more statistics pertaining to one or more of the job demand information, the total inventory requirements and the consolidated inventory requirements.