Preparation of aggregate jobs for production
First Claim
1. An automated method for creating gangs of individual jobs for production at a production facility, the method comprising:
- retaining in electronic form a plurality of individual jobs, each individual job having one or more associated production parameters;
based on at least the available production capacity at the production facility and the production parameters of the individual jobs, defining a plurality of gang shells representing gangs planned to be subsequently created and produced;
based on at least the defined gang shells, developing a schedule for the production of at least some of the gangs represented by the gang shells during a time period; and
creating each gang to be produced such that the gang will be available to the production facility in advance of the gang'"'"'s scheduled production time.
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Accused Products
Abstract
System and method for automated scheduling and creation of gangs of individual jobs for production. Individual jobs and related production parameters and order information are retained electronically in a database of pending jobs awaiting production. Based on production capacity at the production facility and the production parameters of the individual pending jobs in the database, a plurality of gang shells having defined production parameters, but not having specific individual jobs associated therewith, are defined and used for scheduling equipment and personnel at the production facility during a work shift or other desired period of time. The specific individual jobs for a gang are selected from the database relatively shortly prior to the gang'"'"'s scheduled production time.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. An automated method for creating gangs of individual jobs for production at a production facility, the method comprising:
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retaining in electronic form a plurality of individual jobs, each individual job having one or more associated production parameters; based on at least the available production capacity at the production facility and the production parameters of the individual jobs, defining a plurality of gang shells representing gangs planned to be subsequently created and produced; based on at least the defined gang shells, developing a schedule for the production of at least some of the gangs represented by the gang shells during a time period; and creating each gang to be produced such that the gang will be available to the production facility in advance of the gang'"'"'s scheduled production time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15)
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14. A system comprising
at least one production system, a plurality of individual jobs retained in electronic form and having one or more production parameters associated therewith, a ganger capable of defining a plurality of gang shells based on at least the production parameters and the production capability of the at least one production system, the gang shells representing gangs planned to be subsequently created and printed, a scheduler capable of developing a schedule for production of at least some of the gangs represented by the gang shells, and a ganger capable of creating gangs to be printed.
Specification