A printing system including plural devices can appropriately stop normally operating devices in a short time when a problem occurs in any one of the plural devices. The printing system has devices that execute processes for printing on printing paper, device control units that control the devices, and a central control unit that centrally controls the devices. When a problem is detected in one device, the central control unit sends, as a command for a process to be executed immediately, a stop device command for stopping the other device to the device control unit that controls the device in which a problem is not detected. The device control unit that receives the stop device command executes a process based on the stop device command with priority over processes based on other commands, and stops the device.