Patent ID: 8120801

Claim:
A system for managing a scheduling of a plurality of print jobs for a print shop, comprising: a memory for buffering the plurality of print jobs; a scheduling subsystem, operably connected to and communicating with said memory, for, (a) scheduling each of the plurality of print jobs for processing unless at least one of the plurality of print jobs is determined to be a disturbance job, wherein a disturbance job is defined as a print job having a small size when compared to an average size of the plurality of print jobs and a large due slack when compared to an average due slack of the plurality of print jobs, and wherein due slack equals a difference between a due time and a reference time, the at least one disturbance job causing delays in processing of other print jobs in the plurality of jobs that would not occur but for the existence of the at least one disturbance job among the plurality of print jobs, and (b) assigning a print job processing related value to the at least one disturbance job, the print job processing related value increasing over time, the at least one disturbance job having a size and being associated with a number of production hours available to execute the at least one disturbance job, wherein the print job processing related value for the at least one disturbance job varies as a function of print job size and number of hours available to execute the at least one disturbance job; and a filter, operably connected to and communicating with the scheduling subsystem for causing the scheduling of the at least one disturbance job to be delayed until the print job processing related value exceeds a selected threshold value such that, when the print job processing related value is less than the selected threshold, the at least one disturbance job is scheduled for processing by the scheduling subsystem and placed in a jobs queue.