Patent ID: 8310696

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for end-to-end printing, comprising: (i) entering into service level agreements with a plurality of partner systems that enable customers to order personalized print products, wherein a service level agreement designates maximum delays for finishing customer print orders; (ii) receiving a customer print orders forwarded from one of the plurality of partner systems, the print order specifying at least one personalized print product; (iii) serializing the print order into a plurality of work items, each work item corresponding to a part of a personalized print product that is independently printed on printable material, and wherein at least one of the at least one personalized print products specified in the print order comprises a plurality of parts; (iv) dynamically assigning priorities to the work items based on the states of the work items and based on the designated delays within the service level agreements with the partner system that forwarded the print order; and (v) dynamically advancing the work items through a plurality of print processing states, wherein each processing state processes work items in order of their priorities; (vi) preparing (a) a print-ready file and (b) print instructions for each work item; (vii) rasterizing the print-ready files for work items into images that can be directly printed by a printer, based on print instructions for the work item; (viii) printing the images generated by said rasterizing on printable material; and (ix) dynamically assigning the printable materials with the printed images to physical containers for transport across a printing system shop based on at least one criterion selected from: an estimate of the time to complete processing the corresponding work items, the designated delays within the service level agreements with the partner system that forwarded the print order, and a destination.