System and method for processing multiple mailing services orders of varying quantities and address lists

• US 9,594,533 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2016
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cimpress Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Original Assignee: Cimpress Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Inventors: Arpino, Daniel, Sheehan, Robert, Tanner, Marc, Shea, Brendan, Hyman, Jacob, Griego, Adrian, Nietlispach, Philipp, Marcos, John, Olson, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, II, Jerome
• Application Number:
  US15/077,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20160202940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 357 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1205 resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1211 Improving printing performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1262 by grouping or ganging jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1272 Digital storefront, e.g. e-ordering, web2print, submitting a job from a remote submission screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1275 Print workflow management, e.g. defining or changing a workflow, cross publishing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

Methods and systems for processing multiple mailing services orders for print items of varying quantities include filling 3-dimensional gangs configured to receive print-ready items with print-ready items in a stack-wise manner. Individual stacks can be submitted to the system for reprint without holding up remaining items in an order.

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating a gang file of individual mail items to be printed, comprising:

one or more processors executing computer-readable instructions implementing a ganging system, the ganging system configured to;

receive or have access to at least one open mailing order having a non-zero quantity of mail items that have not yet been assigned to a fulfillment item, each open mailing order respectively having an associated product design comprising print information to be printed on every mail item in the order, an associated address list, a specified quantity of mail items to be printed, and an order identifier;

obtain a gang template, the gang template comprising a plurality of empty cells organized in a 3-dimensional grid, wherein at least one dimension corresponds to pages to be printed on a substrate and the other two dimensions correspond to positions of individual stacks to be printed;

create a gang file based on the gang template, the gang file comprising an empty gang; and

fill the gang by;

while the gang file contains at least one positional stack which has at least one empty content cell, and at least one open mailing order remains;

select an open mailing order,

obtain a stack identifier corresponding to a positional stack in the gang file which has at least one empty content cell;

create a new fulfillment item identifier and associating the new fulfillment item identifier with the stack identifier;

repeatedly receive respective one or more individual print-ready content images each respectively comprising a rendered image containing at least a portion of the product design and a unique address obtained from the mailing list associated with the open mailing order, associate the open mailing order and respective unique addresses obtained from the mailing list with the fulfillment item identifier, insert the received one or more respective individual print-ready content image into respective one or more empty cells of the positional stack in the gang file as identified by the stack identifier until the occurrence of at least one of (i) the open mailing order becomes a closed order whereby each mail item in the specified quantity of mail items has been assigned to a fulfillment item, and (ii) the stack corresponding to the stack identifier becomes filled and thereby no longer has at least one empty content cell; and

closing and saving the gang file to generate a completed gang file.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the ganging system is configured to attempt to fill the gang until:

(i) the gang file does not contain at least one positional stack which has at least one empty content cell, (ii) no open mailing order remains, and (iii) a predetermined amount of time passes.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the respective rendered images corresponding to the respective one or more individual print-ready content images further comprises postage indicia.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a rendering service which receives one or more unique addresses from the mailing list associated with the open mailing order and at least a portion of a product design associated with the open mailing order, and renders the respective one or more individual print-ready content images containing the respective unique address and the portion of the product design;

wherein the ganging system is further configured to communicate with the rendering service to receive the rendered one or more respective individual print-ready content images.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:

an address manager in communication with the ganging system and the rendering service, the address manager configured to maintain associations between addresses associated with a particular mailing order identifier and fulfillment items associated with the particular mailing order identifier, and to obtain one or more unique addresses from an address list associated with an open mailing order wherein the obtained unique addresses are used by the rendering service to render an individual print-ready content image.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

one or more computer-readable media accessible to the ganging system and which stores open mailing orders.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

a printing system which receives and prints the completed gang file onto a plurality of individual substrates, wherein a single page corresponding to a different page index in the 3-dimensional grid of the completed gang file is printed onto each of a plurality of respective individual substrates.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the ganging system is configured to attempt to fill the gang until:

(i) the gang file does not contain at least one positional stack which has at least one empty content cell, (ii) no open mailing order remains, and (iii) a predetermined amount of time passes.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the respective rendered images corresponding to the respective one or more individual print-ready content images further comprises postage indicia.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the gang template comprises a front side gang template and a back side gang template, the front side gang template comprising a plurality of empty cells organized in a 3-dimensional grid, wherein at least one dimension corresponds to pages to be printed on a front side of the substrate and the other two dimensions correspond to positions of individual stacks to be printed, and the back side gang template comprising a plurality of empty cells organized in a 3-dimensional grid, wherein at least one dimension corresponds to pages to be printed on a back side of the substrate and the other two dimensions correspond to positions of individual stacks to be printed; and

the gang file comprises a front side gang based on the front side gang template and a back side gang based on the back side gang template, and wherein the gang file is filled by inserting front side content of the product design in the front side gang and back side content of the product design in the back side gang.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the ganging system is configured to attempt to fill the gang until:

(i) the gang file does not contain at least one positional stack which has at least one empty content cell, (ii) no open mailing order remains, and (iii) a predetermined amount of time passes.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the respective rendered images corresponding to the respective one or more individual print-ready content images further comprises postage indicia.

13. A method for generating a gang file of individual mail items to be printed, comprising:

obtaining a gang template, the gang template comprising a plurality of empty cells organized in a 3-dimensional grid, wherein at least one dimension corresponds to pages to be printed on a substrate and the other two dimensions correspond to positions of individual stacks to be printed;

generating, based on the gang template, a gang file comprising an empty gang;

selecting an open mailing order having a non-zero quantity of mail items that have not yet been assigned to a fulfillment item, the open mailing order having an associated product design comprising print information to be printed on every mail item in the order, an associated address list, a specified quantity of mail items to be printed, and an order identifier;

obtaining a stack identifier corresponding to a positional stack in the gang file which has at least one empty content cell;

creating a new fulfillment item identifier and associating the new fulfillment item identifier with the stack identifier;

inserting one or more respective individual print-ready content image into respective one or more empty cells of the positional stack in the gang file as identified by the stack identifier, the respective one or more individual print-ready content images each comprising a rendered image containing at least a portion of the product design and a unique address obtained from the mailing list associated with the open order, and associating the open order and respective unique addresses obtained from the mailing list with the fulfillment item identifier, and repeating the identifying step through the inserting step until the occurrence of at least one of (i) the open order becomes a closed order whereby each mail item in the specified quantity of mail items has been assigned to a fulfillment item, and (ii) the stack corresponding to the stack identifier becomes filled and thereby no longer has at least one empty content cell; and

repeating the obtaining step through this repeating step until the open order is closed or there remains no positional stack in the gang file which has at least one empty content cell; and

if the open order is closed and there remains at least one unfilled stack, repeating the selecting step for selection of another open order through this repeating step until the occurrence of at least one of the conditions consisting of;

(i) there remains no positional stack in the gang file which has at least one empty content cell, (ii) there are no more open orders, and (iii) a predetermined amount of time passes.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the respective rendered images corresponding to the respective one or more individual print-ready content images further comprises postage indicia.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

printing the gang file onto a plurality of individual substrates, wherein a single page corresponding to a different page index in the 3-dimensional grid of the completed gang file is printed onto each of a plurality of respective individual substrates.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

printing the gang file onto a plurality of individual substrates, wherein a single page corresponding to a different page index in the 3-dimensional grid of the completed gang file is printed onto each of a plurality of respective individual substrates.