ITEM WORKFLOW TRACKING IN AN AUTOMATED PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT
First Claim
1. A method for progressively tracking and controlling processing of a plurality of individual physical items required to produce a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location, as a result of a production run, through a sequence of processes executed in a workflow procedure intended to produce the finished product, the method comprising steps of:
- (A) initializing a workflow template identifying each of the plurality of individual items, one or more machine resources needed for the production of the finished product, a plurality of processes to be executed by the machine resources to transform individual items from one state to another, in an order of a sequence of the processes defined in accord with a workflow procedure, and relationships between individual items;
(B) starting the production run, to produce the finished product, in accordance with the workflow procedure;
(C) during the production run, recording at each respective process executed in the workflow procedure upon completion of item transformation by the respective process, at least;
i) an identification value assigned to at least one of the plurality of individual items upon which the respective process has been executed; and
ii) an identification value assigned to a machine resource which executed the respective process on the at least one individual item; and
(D) before at least one respective process is executed in the workflow procedure;
a) analyzing the recorded data for one or more of the items to be processed by the one respective process, andb) permitting execution of the one respective process only upon determining that each of one or more of items to be processed by the one respective process has been transformed through all processes preceding the one respective process and in the order for the preceding processes as specified by the defined sequence.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The progressive tracking of items in relation to other items as they are processed and transformed through a sequence of processes executed in a workflow procedure intended to produce a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location, as a result of a production run, enables permission based control of one or more processing steps during the production run and/or effective scheduling of any re-do operations that may be desired upon detection of any discrepancies in the item processing operations.
51 Citations
24 Claims
-
1. A method for progressively tracking and controlling processing of a plurality of individual physical items required to produce a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location, as a result of a production run, through a sequence of processes executed in a workflow procedure intended to produce the finished product, the method comprising steps of:
-
(A) initializing a workflow template identifying each of the plurality of individual items, one or more machine resources needed for the production of the finished product, a plurality of processes to be executed by the machine resources to transform individual items from one state to another, in an order of a sequence of the processes defined in accord with a workflow procedure, and relationships between individual items; (B) starting the production run, to produce the finished product, in accordance with the workflow procedure; (C) during the production run, recording at each respective process executed in the workflow procedure upon completion of item transformation by the respective process, at least; i) an identification value assigned to at least one of the plurality of individual items upon which the respective process has been executed; and ii) an identification value assigned to a machine resource which executed the respective process on the at least one individual item; and (D) before at least one respective process is executed in the workflow procedure; a) analyzing the recorded data for one or more of the items to be processed by the one respective process, and b) permitting execution of the one respective process only upon determining that each of one or more of items to be processed by the one respective process has been transformed through all processes preceding the one respective process and in the order for the preceding processes as specified by the defined sequence. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A document production system, comprising:
-
one or more machine resources needed for the production of a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location from a plurality of individual physical items by executing a plurality of processes, each process transforming one or more of the individual items from one state to another; a computer coupled for communication with the one or more machine resources, for progressively tracking and controlling processing of individual physical items through the execution of the transformations by the plurality of processes, the computer being programmed to perform functions including; (A) initializing a workflow template identifying each of the plurality of individual items, one or more machine resources needed for the production of the finished product, a plurality of processes to be executed by the machine resources to transform individual items from one state to another, in an order of a sequence of the processes defined in accord with a workflow procedure, and relationships between individual items; (B) starting the production run, to produce the finished product, in accordance with the workflow procedure; (C) during the production run, recording at each respective process executed in the workflow procedure upon completion of item transformation by the respective process, at least; i) an identification value assigned to at least one of the plurality of individual items upon which the respective process has been executed; and ii) an identification value assigned to a machine resource which executed the respective process on the at least one individual item; and (D) before at least one respective process is executed in the workflow procedure; a) analyzing the recorded data for one or more of the items to be processed by the one respective process, and b) permitting execution of the one respective process only upon determining that each of one or more of items to be processed by the one respective process has been transformed through all processes preceding the one respective process and in the order for the preceding processes as specified by the defined sequence. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for progressively tracking and controlling processing of a plurality of individual physical items required to produce a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location, as a result of a production run, through a sequence of processes executed in a workflow procedure intended to produce the finished product, the method comprising steps of:
-
A) processing one or more items by one or more machine resources through a workflow procedure designated in accordance with a workflow procedural template, each of the respective one or more items and one or more resources assigned a unique identification value; B) obtaining the identification value of the one or more items as the one or more items are processed by each of the one or more machine resources; C) sending, to a control processor, the obtained identification value of the one or more items in connection with the identification of the one or more machine resources upon which the one or more items were processed; D) detecting, by the control processor, a discrepancy in processing in accordance with the workflow template, at a point in the designated workflow procedure; E) in response to the discrepancy, based at least in part on the recorded identification value of at least one item and the identification value of the at least one machine resource, performing one of the following; a) scheduling a re-do of the at least one item subject to the discrepancy at the detected point in the designated workflow procedure; and b) preventing execution of subsequent processing of the at least one item in accordance with the designated workflow procedure until the discrepancy is rectified. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
-
-
19. A method for progressively tracking and controlling processing of a plurality of individual physical items required to produce a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location, as a result of a production run, through a sequence of processes executed in a workflow procedure intended to produce the finished product, the method comprising steps of:
-
(A) initializing a workflow template identifying each of the plurality of individual items, one or more machine resources needed for the production of the finished product, a plurality of processes to be executed by the machine resources to transform individual items from one state to another, in an order of a sequence of the processes defined in accord with a workflow procedure, and relationships between individual items; (B) starting the production run, to produce the finished product, in accordance with the workflow procedure; (C) during the production run, recording at each respective process executed in the workflow procedure upon completion of item transformation by the respective process, at least; i) an identification value assigned to at least one of the plurality of individual items upon which the respective process has been executed; and ii) an identification value assigned to a machine resource which executed the respective process on the at least one individual item; (D) before at least one respective process is executed in the workflow procedure; a) analyzing the recorded data for one or more of the items to be processed by the one respective process, and b) detecting a discrepancy with respect to the processing of one or more of the physical items required to produce the finished hard copy document product; (E) scheduling a re-do of an item subject to the discrepancy, at a specified process of the workflow procedure; (F) executing the re-do of the subject item in accordance with the schedule; and (G) executing one or more of the processes of the workflow procedure to produce the finished product, using the re-do of the subject item. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
-
-
22. A document production system, comprising:
-
one or more machine resources needed for the production of a finished hard copy document product for transport to a destination location from a plurality of individual physical items by executing a plurality of processes, each process transforming one or more of the individual items from one state to another; a computer coupled for communication with the one or more machine resources, for progressively tracking and controlling processing of individual physical items through the execution of the transformations by the plurality of processes, the computer being programmed to perform functions including; (A) initializing a workflow template identifying each of the plurality of individual items, one or more machine resources needed for the production of the finished product, a plurality of processes to be executed by the machine resources to transform individual items from one state to another, in an order of a sequence of the processes defined in accord with a workflow procedure, and relationships between individual items; (B) starting the production run, to produce the finished product, in accordance with the workflow procedure; (C) during the production run, recording at each respective process executed in the workflow procedure upon completion of item transformation by the respective process, at least; i) an identification value assigned to at least one of the plurality of individual items upon which the respective process has been executed; and ii) an identification value assigned to a machine resource which executed the respective process on the at least one individual item; (D) before at least one respective process is executed in the workflow procedure; a) analyzing the recorded data for one or more of the items to be processed by the one respective process, and b) detecting a discrepancy with respect to the processing of one or more of the physical items required to produce the finished hard copy document product; (E) scheduling a re-do of an item subject to the discrepancy, at a specified process of the workflow procedure; (F) executing the re-do of the subject item in accordance with the schedule; and (G) executing one or more of the processes of the workflow procedure to produce the finished product, using the re-do of the subject item. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
-
Specification