How jobs share machines
The rules that decide when a job may start and when it may finish, and why they differ.
One physical press cannot run two jobs at once, and one job can span several presses. PrintERP enforces that with two rules — a permissive one for starting and a stricter one for finishing.
Starting: one free machine is enough
A job may start as long as at least one of its machines is free. A job covering Printer 1 and Printer 2 can begin on Printer 2 while Printer 1 is still busy with something else.
Why not wait for all of them
Requiring every machine to be free would idle a press that is ready to run, just because a different press on the same job is not. Work that can proceed should proceed. A job with no machines assigned can always start — there is nothing to schedule.
Finishing: earlier jobs hold the machine
Done is refused while any of this job's machines is still held by another active job that started before yours. You will see which machine and which job is holding it.
Why start order matters
Without it, two jobs sharing a press could each block the other from finishing — a deadlock nobody can clear. Comparing start times gives a consistent order: the job that got on the machine first finishes first, and the queue always drains.
Unblocking a job
- Finish the earlier job. Usually it is genuinely still running.
- Check for stale jobs. A job left In Production from last week still holds its machine. Finish or cancel it.
- Reassign the machine. If the work actually ran elsewhere, cancel and recreate the job against the right press.
Time estimates
Each machine's time is worked out from its Production Speed, and the job's estimate is the slowest machine's — because that is when the whole job is really done. Machines with no usable speed produce no estimate, and PrintERP says so rather than showing a fabricated zero.
Estimates drive the progress ring and the “probably done” flag only. They never block, auto-complete, or reorder anything.
Open the production queue
See every active job and which machines are busy.
Related guides
Running a production job
Start to finish: starting a job, watching progress, logging errors, and marking it done.
Job statuses explained
What Queued, In Production, Completed, Delivered and Cancelled each mean, and what moves between them.
Adding a machine
Register a printer, cutter or laminator — and why production speed matters more than it sounds.