Print Management System Predicting Printer Failures
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Solution Overview
Problem
In distributed printing systems, when a print engine assigned as the output destination printer stops during operation, throughput decreases, and urgent repairs are required, as existing hybrid workflow techniques fail to effectively manage and predict printer failures, leading to inefficiencies in rapid printing processes.
Innovation Solution
A novel print management system that connects manuscript processors and output printers via a network, utilizing a management unit, status identification unit, and print data generator to predict printer failures, classify printers by reliability, and generate and select print data types based on toner consumption, ensuring efficient output to reliable printers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple output printers are assigned to a print engine in a distributed printing system, then printing capacity and speed are improved, but when one printer stops during operation, throughput decreases and urgent repairs are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by predicting printer failures before they occur. The status identification unit continuously monitors printer conditions and predicts potential stoppages, allowing the management unit to proactively reassign print jobs to other printers before the current printer actually fails, thus maintaining continuous printing operations
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic printer assignment where the management unit can flexibly reassign print jobs between multiple output printers based on real-time status predictions. When a printer is predicted to stop, the system dynamically redirects work to other available printers, making the printing system adaptable to changing conditions
2Manufacturing precision
If print data is generated with higher toner consumption, then printing quality is improved, but toner usage increases and cost rises
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes print data parameters by generating multiple versions with different toner consumption levels. The management unit selects appropriate print data based on printer status predictions, adjusting parameters like toner density to match the selected output device's characteristics and predicted performance
Data Source
AI summary
A print management system, includes a management unit to receive print manuscript data from a connected manuscript processor, and obtain status information indicating states of connected multiple output enabled printers; a status identification unit to predict whether the output enabled printers stop in the middle of a print job; and a print data generator to generate multiple types of print data whose amount of toner consumption during printing is different respectively, based on the print manuscript data. The management unit classifies the output enabled printers predicted that there is less possibility to stop in the middle of a print job as output candidate printers, and selects an output destination printer from the output candidate printers. The management unit selects one type of print data from the multiple types of print data, depending on the output destination printer, and outputs the selected print data to the output destination printer.