Method and system for print shop job routing

A print shop system, comprising:

• a plurality of cells, each of which comprises hardware that is capable of processing a print job;
• at least one processor;
• and
• a computer-readable memory storing programming instructions that, when executed, are configured to instruct at least one of the processors to:
• retrieve data about a set of print jobs that were processed over a period of time,
• perform a plurality of simulations of a print production cycle over the period of time, wherein the plurality of simulations use a plurality of job size distributions,
• determine a plurality of job size thresholds for the set of print jobs that were processed over a period of time by identifying the plurality of job size thresholds as those that optimize a print job metric that comprises a print job turnaround time (TAT) by, for each of the cells in the print shop, determining a job size threshold for the cell that minimizes a difference between a maximum TAT and a minimum TAT,
• assign the determined thresholds to the cells by:
• ordering the job size thresholds from lowest to highest,
• assigning the lowest job size threshold to a first one of the cells,
• assigning the highest job size threshold to a second one of the cells, and
• assigning each of the remaining thresholds to the remaining cells so that each of the cells has an assigned job size threshold,
• receive a print job,
• determine a size for the received print job,
• identify which of the cells has an assigned job size threshold that corresponds to the size of the received print job, and
• route the received print job to the identified cell.