| 摘要 |
Print jobs requested are scheduled to be performed during available time slots, and on suitable printers having lowest associated overhead cost. In the event that no technically suitable printer is available a print services management programme determines whether it is economically viable to cancel one or more pre-scheduled print jobs in favour of the requested job, taking into account, for example, the price of the requested job and scheduled jobs. In a development a bidding routine establishes at what price it is viable to cancel a scheduled job in favour of a requested job, and that price is then offered to a customer. Future work inflow is predicted and represented in the form of virtual jobs which are scheduled in the same manner as actual jobs, but whose value is representative of the likelihood of the job maturing into an actual job. In a further development, demand on printer hardware arising from the scheduling of virtual jobs is used to monitor predicted future hardware requirements, and when virtual demand exceeds a threshold, an order is placed for procurement of further hardware. |
