solver help

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Johnston
  • Start date Start date
J

John Johnston

I have a problem using "solver" in Excel.
Let's say I have the following
cars trucks vans
hours of labor 215 245 265
cost of supply 3000 3800 4500
Total
units to manufacture ? ? ? ?

Total Labor Hours ? ? ? ?
Total cost of Supply ? ? ? ?

If I want to maximize the total units to manufacture by
keeping labor hours to no more than 6000, and cost of
supply to no more than 45000, how can I use the solver to
calculate the units to manufacture?
 
You can't use solver for this, since your problem isn't well formed.
You could manufacture all cars, all trucks, all vans, or any
combination thereof, within your constraints. To maximize the number
of units, you would obviously make 15 cars for $45,000 in parts, using
3225 hours, since that is your least expensive unit to make in terms
of parts, since that is your true limiting constraint - not labor. Or
you could make 10 trucks, using $45000 in parts and 2650 hours of
labor. You need to have some other criteria for choosing the blend of
units - how much do you make on each unit, is there a benefit to
making multiple units, is there a price increase if fewer than X units
of Y are available, etc.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP
 
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