Looks like it may already be built into the following dev item:
Core57, IMPROVED FORTRESS AUTOMATION AND WORKSHOP HANDLING, (Future): As with transportation, the goal itself is pretty open-ended, but certain basics goals need to be reached for v1. Ability to use specific materials more easily, job priorities, better automatic job creation via manager triggers etc., and whatever else is deemed essential.
Also, here is one example thread that had a few good points to keep in mind with such a suggestion:
Constantly checking stats and queuing jobs gets kind of tiresome. It would be great to be able to set up rules in the job manager, like "if drinks fall below 100, add 'brew 10' to the queue." Or, "if available mechanisms falls below 10, add 'create 10 mechs' to the queue," etc.
And I could swear that I've seen plenty of other suggestion threads that also suggest roughly the same thing, but somehow my search didn't find as many as I expected.
EDIT: Also, the suggestion seems to be covered by
Eternal Suggestion #4: Standing production orders. Toady plans on doing his best to work on some of the top suggestions from this poll, for the release that will come after the one he is currently working on, so there is definite hope for this suggestion.