Methods and systems for prioritized servicing or maintenance of networked printers

• US 7,949,740 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Kammerdiener, Shawn, Scrafford, Matthew, Pothos, Kirk
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong; Oanh
• Application Number:
  US11/696,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20080247767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,511 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 710/8, 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5079 for maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0733 in a data processing system embedded in an image processing device, e.g. printer, facsimile, scanner
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

Methods and systems are presented for prioritizing service or maintenance of networked printers based on affinities between printers and users determined from job tracking data so that printers shared by large numbers of users or high volume printers used by only one or a few users can be serviced or maintained before other printers to provide overall printer support while mitigating user disruption due to unavailable printers.

Claims

1. A method for servicing and maintaining networked printer devices, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of printer devices in a network that require maintenance or servicing;

gathering job tracking data for print jobs in the network, the job tracking data including an identity of a submitting user device and an identity of a target printer device to which each of the print jobs was initially submitted;

determining affinity data based on the job tracking data, the affinity data indicating associations between the target printer devices and the submitting user devices based on user preferences for the target printer devices selected for the submitted print jobs;

determining a prioritized ordering of the plurality of printer devices based at least partially on the affinity data; and

performing servicing or maintenance to the plurality of printer devices in the network according to the prioritized ordering,

wherein the affinity data is a measure of common selection of the target printer devices for the print jobs by the submitting user devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a prioritized ordering comprises generating at least one prioritized listing of printer devices requiring servicing or maintenance based at least partially on the affinity data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating at least one prioritized listing comprises:

generating a first prioritized list of printer devices requiring servicing based at least partially on the affinity data; and

generating a second prioritized list of printer devices requiring maintenance based at least partially on the affinity data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritized ordering is determined at least partially according to print count values for the plurality of printer devices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the prioritized ordering comprises prioritizing service or maintenance for printer devices with high print count values.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the prioritized ordering comprises prioritizing service or maintenance for printer devices with low affinity values.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the prioritized ordering comprises prioritizing service or maintenance for printer devices with high affinity values.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the prioritized ordering comprises prioritizing performance of service over maintenance.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein performing servicing comprises repairing out-of-service printer devices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein performing maintenance comprises replenishing supplies to printer devices.

11. A networked printing system comprising:

a plurality of user devices operably coupled with a network;

a plurality of printer devices operably coupled with the network; and

a printer device manager component operatively coupled with the network, the printer device manager operative to identify a plurality of printer devices in the network that require maintenance or servicing, to determine affinity data based on print job tracking data that includes an identity of a submitting user device and an identity of a target printer device to which each of print jobs was initially submitted, the affinity data indicating associations between the target printer devices and the submitting user devices based on user preferences for the target printer devices selected for the submitted print jobs, to determine a prioritized ordering of the plurality of printer devices based at least partially on the affinity data, and to perform the maintenance or servicing to the plurality of printer devices in the network according to the prioritized ordering,

wherein the affinity data is a measure of common selection of the target printer devices for the print jobs by the submitting user devices.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the printer device manager component generates at least one prioritized listing of printer devices requiring servicing or maintenance based at least partially on the affinity data.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the printer device manager component determines the prioritized ordering at least partially according to print count values for the plurality of printer devices.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the printer device manager component prioritizes service or maintenance for printer devices with high print count values.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the printer device manager component prioritizes service or maintenance for printer devices with low affinity values.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the printer device manager component prioritizes service or maintenance for printer devices with high affinity values.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the printer device manager component prioritizes performance of service over maintenance.

18. A printer device manager system for prioritizing service or maintenance of printer devices connected to a network, the printer device manager system comprising:

a server connected to the network, the server comprising;

an affinity component operative to gather job tracking data for print jobs in the network, the job tracking data including an identity of a submitting user device and an identity of a target printer device to which each of the print jobs was initially submitted, and to determine affinity data indicating associations between the target printer devices and the submitting user devices based on user preferences for the target printer devices selected for the submitted print jobs, and

a service and maintenance priority component operative to determine a prioritized ordering of a plurality of printer devices requiring servicing or maintenance based at least partially on the affinity data, and to perform the servicing or maintenance to the plurality of printer devices in the network according to the prioritized ordering,

wherein the affinity data is a measure of common selection of the target printer devices for the print jobs by the submitting user devices.

19. The printer device manager system of claim 18, wherein the service and maintenance priority component generates at least one prioritized listing of printer devices requiring servicing or maintenance based at least partially on the affinity data.

20. The printer device manager system of claim 18, wherein the service and maintenance priority component determines the prioritized ordering at least partially according to print count values for the plurality of printer devices.