Patent ID: 8781872

Claim:
A system of assigning operators to cells in a document production environment, the system comprising: a computing device; and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, wherein the computer-readable storage medium comprises one or more programming instructions for: identifying a cell in the document production environment to be staffed, wherein the cell comprises one or more document production devices, identifying one or more print-related functions associated with the identified cell that are performable by at least one of the document production devices of the identified cell, identifying a first plurality of cell operators who each possesses skills necessary to perform each identified print-related function associated with the identified cell, selecting, from the first plurality, a second plurality of cell operators based on at least one relationship amongst the second plurality of cell operators by: determining a number of cell operators needed to staff the cell, for each distinct combination of cell operators in the first plurality having a number of cell operators equal to the number of cell operators needed to staff the cell, determining a cohesiveness value associated with the combination by: determining a total number of relationships that exist among the cell operators in the combination, identifying a total number of cell operators in the combination, determining a product of the total number of cell operators and one less than the total number of cell operators, and determining a ratio of the total number of relationships to the product, and selecting the combination having a highest cohesiveness value, and assigning the second plurality of cell operators from the selected combination to the identified cell.