Patent ID: 8717589

Claim:
An image processing system comprising: a plurality of process execution portions, each being capable of executing an in-charge process selected from a plurality of processes; and a job accepting portion to accept a job which defines data serving as a process target, one or more processes selected from said plurality of processes for said data, and an order of executing said one or more processes, each of said plurality of process execution portions including an accumulation portion to accumulate a job that is accepted by said job accepting portion and in which a process in a first place in the order among processes not yet executed is said in-charge process, and a batch processing portion to, on condition that a total process volume for executing one or more jobs accumulated by said accumulation portion becomes equal to or greater than a lower limit value predetermined for said in-charge process, execute said in-charge process on combination data in which one or more data that are process targets of said accumulated one or more jobs are combined into one, said batch processing portion including a determination portion to determine whether there exists a job that includes said in-charge process and in which a previous process immediately before said in-charge process is now being executed, among a plurality of jobs accepted by said job accepting portion, a first delay portion to delay start of said in-charge process until a prescribed time has elapsed since a start-enabled time at which said total process volume becomes equal to or greater than said lower limit value, and a second delay portion to delay start of said in-charge process until a job determined that said previous process is now being executed is accumulated in said accumulation portion, if it is determined by said determination portion that there exists a job in which said previous process is now being executed, before said prescribed time has elapsed since said start-enabled time.