PRODUCTION CAPACITY MANAGEMENT IN MEDIA PRODUCT AGGREGATION SYSTEMS

1 . A method of managing production capacity comprising,

using a communication network to receive data including production and distribution pricing grids from a network of production entities;

receiving quoting requirement over the communication network from a plurality of customers for producing and distributing customer designated media products;

calculating a baseline of aggregated media product volumes and an associated target cost that are compatible with the capabilities and capacities of the network of production entities;

using a processor to determine if the current volume of received quoting requirements will produce the baseline of aggregated media product volumes;

calculating reduced target cost estimates when received quoting requirements are below the baseline of aggregated media product volumes;

calculating increased target cost estimates when received quoting requirements are above the baseline of aggregated media product volumes;

using the communication network to send the quoting requirements and the resulting calculated target cost estimates for producing the aggregated media products to a subset of the network of production entities;

receiving actual cost estimates based on the calculated target cost estimates over the communication network for producing and distributing the aggregated media products from the subset of the network of production entities;

calculating customer prices for the plurality of customers for producing and distributing customer designated media products based on the received actual cost estimates; and

using the communication network to provide customer prices to plurality of customers for producing and distributing customer designated media products.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein a subset of the network of media product producers are selected based on reduced target cost estimates and have not received requests for reduced costs estimates for a predetermined period of time or are selected in a sequential order.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein a subset of the network of media product producers are selected based on increased target cost estimates and have not received requests for increased costs estimates for a predetermined period of time or are selected in a sequential order.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the customer designated media products are in electronic form.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the customer designated media products are in printed form.