Patent ID: 7349121

Claim:
A method for determininig (i) on a data procesing system, (ii) in a computer program or (iii) on a computer readable medium, an optimal routing for manufacturing a printed product, the method comprising: selecting a printing device from a first group of printing devices for printing said product, the first group comprising at least one device; selecting a folding device from a second group of folding devices for folding said product, the second group comprising at least one device; wherein the first and the second group together comprise at least three devices; calculating a plurality of imposition plans from a given set of input data including product specification data of said product, printing press data of said selected printing device and folding machine data of said selected folding device; determining, from said plurality of imposition plans, a specific optimal imposition plan for said product; repeating said determination of said specific optimal imposition plan for all combinations of printing devices of said first group and folding devices of said second group, thus obtaining a plurality of specific optimal imposition plans for said product; determining an optimal imposition plan from said plurality of specific optimal imposition plans for said product, thus obtaining said optimal routing for said product, said optimal routing comprising (i) an optimal printing device out of said first group of printing devices and associated with said optimal imposition plan and (ii) an optimal folding device out of said second group of folding devices and associated with said optimal imposition plan.