The present disclosure may be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
With reference to the drawings wherein like numerals represent like parts throughout the several figures, a printer system utilizing a method of establishing customer service level requirements in accordance with the present disclosure is generally designated by the numeral 10. The printer system 10 (
The system computer 12 includes one or more hard drives for storing an operating system 22, described in detail below. A database 24 (
The database 24 includes a QCD decision control table comprising a set of rules 26 encompassing the policies of the print shop with regard to customer cost, shop schedule, resource availability and capacity. The sets of rules 26 optimize one of three parameters quality, cost, or delivery, for any set of variables associated with a print job. The priority of the rule sets can be modified by the customer profile, the shop schedule, and by the user through the user computer. For example, the user may instruct the operating system to optimize cost at the expense of quality and/or delivery.
The database 24 also includes a production QCD model comprising formatted data corresponding to customer cost 28, shop schedule information 30, shop resources 32 and shop capacity 34. The production QCD model provides a common representation for the information that QCD decision control utilizes to determine the optimum value of the selected parameter. Where possible, actual production shop information is utilized in the production QCD model. For example, information regarding the equipment installed in the print shop, the personnel resources available to the print shop 18, or the raw materials (paper, etc.) available at the print shop 18 is used if available.
The operating system 22 stored in the system computer 12 embodies a method 40 of establishing customer service level requirements for web based production print jobs, that is print jobs submitted to a production print shop via the Internet. As shown in
After logging-in 42, the user is directed to select 44 a template for the format of the printed work from a menu 38 of available templates. The user then uploads 46 the digital files comprising the user supplied content to the printer system 10 and inputs 48 the number of prints that are to be produced, setting 50 the applicable specification variable. The system computer 12 computes and displays 52 summary fields 54, 54′, 54″ of print job production data corresponding to the template selected by the user.
If the data displayed in the summary field display 56 is acceptable, the user submits 58 the job request to the print shop 18 for confirmation. If any of the data displayed in the summary field display 56 is unacceptable, the user may either exit 60, returning the operating system to standby, or reset 62 one of the specification variables. If for example the user believes that the $528.00 cost shown in
Each production option represents a set of print job production data that correlates with the value inputted the selected production variable.
If one of the options 68, 70, 72 is acceptable, the user selects 74 the acceptable option and is queried 76 whether the order should be submitted to the print shop 18 for confirmation. If none of the options is acceptable 78, the user may either reset 62 another specification variable, for example the delivery date or the quality, or may exit 80 the printer system 10.
The print shop 18 generates 82 a firm quote as a means of confirming that the production shop information utilized by the operating system 22 is complete and up-to-date and that the cost data provided to the user is accurate. A “firm quote” is hereby defined to be a quote that provides production and cost information to which the print shop is willing to be legally bound. After the quote is presented 84, the operating system 22 queries 86 the user to determine whether the user will authorize the print job under the terms provided in the quote. If the user authorizes 88 the print job, it is submitted to the print job queue for printing 90. If the user does not authorize the print job, the user exits 92 the printer system 10.
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.