Skip to content
xlsoffice. All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Lookup and Reference Examples

  • How to get last row in mixed data with blanks in Excel
  • Offset in Excel
  • Basic INDEX MATCH approximate in Excel
  • Excel Advanced Lookup using Index and Match Functions
  • How to get last column number in range in Excel

Data Analysis Examples

  • Conditional Formatting Data bars Examples in Excel
  • How to calculate current stock or inventory in Excel
  • How To Create Frequency Distribution in Excel
  • How to Create Area Chart in Excel
  • Conditional Formatting Color Scales Examples in Excel

Data Validation Examples

  • Excel Data validation date in specific year
  • Excel Data validation number multiple 100
  • Excel Data validation must not contain
  • Prevent invalid data entering in specific cells
  • Excel Data validation whole percentage only

How to Use Solver Tool in Excel

by

Excel includes a tool called solver that uses techniques from the operations research to find optimal solutions for all kind of decision problems.

Load the Solver Add-in

To load the solver add-in, execute the following steps.

1. On the File tab, click Options.

2. Under Add-ins, select Solver Add-in and click on the Go button.

3. Check Solver Add-in and click OK.

4. You can find the Solver on the Data tab, in the Analyze group.

Formulate the Model

The model we are going to solve looks as follows in Excel.

1. To formulate this linear programming model, answer the following three questions.

a. What are the decisions to be made? For this problem, we need Excel to find out how much to order of each product (bicycles, mopeds and child seats).

b. What are the constraints on these decisions? The constrains here are that the amount of capital and storage used by the products cannot exceed the limited amount of capital and storage (resources) available. For example, each bicycle uses 300 units of capital and 0.5 unit of storage.

c. What is the overall measure of performance for these decisions? The overall measure of performance is the total profit of the three products, so the objective is to maximize this quantity.

2. To make the model easier to understand, name the following ranges.

Range Name Cells
UnitProfit C4:E4
OrderSize C12:E12
ResourcesUsed G7:G8
ResourcesAvailable I7:I8
TotalProfit I12

3. Insert the following three SUMPRODUCT functions.

Explanation: The amount of capital used equals the sumproduct of the range C7:E7 and OrderSize. The amount of storage used equals the sumproduct of the range C8:E8 and OrderSize. Total Profit equals the sumproduct of UnitProfit and OrderSize.

Trial and Error

With this formulation, it becomes easy to analyze any trial solution.

For example, if we order 20 bicycles, 40 mopeds and 100 child seats, the total amount of resources used does not exceed the amount of resources available. This solution has a total profit of 19000.

It is not necessary to use trial and error. We shall describe next how the Excel Solver can be used to quickly find the optimal solution.

Solve the Model

To find the optimal solution, execute the following steps.

1. On the Data tab, in the Analyze group, click Solver.

Enter the solver parameters (read on). The result should be consistent with the picture below.

You have the choice of typing the range names or clicking on the cells in the spreadsheet.

2. Enter TotalProfit for the Objective.

3. Click Max.

4. Enter OrderSize for the Changing Variable Cells.

5. Click Add to enter the following constraint.

6. Check ‘Make Unconstrained Variables Non-Negative’ and select ‘Simplex LP’.

7. Finally, click Solve.

Result:

The optimal solution:

Conclusion: it is optimal to order 94 bicycles and 54 mopeds. This solution gives the maximum profit of 25600. This solution uses all the resources available.

Post navigation

Previous Post:

Working With Tables in Excel

Next Post:

How to create a Histogram in Excel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others
  • ASC function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Extract most frequently occurring text in Excel
  • Two ways to Compare Text in Excel
  • How to remove trailing slash from url in Excel
  • Manipulating text strings using Left, Mid, Right, Len, Substitute in Excel
  • Get month name from date in Excel
  • How to calculate months between dates in Excel
  • Count dates in current month in Excel
  • How to calculate percent of year complete in Excel
  • Add months to date in Excel
  • RRI function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Bond valuation example in Excel
  • Future value vs. Present value examples in Excel
  • PRICEMAT function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Calculate payment periods for loan in Excel
Acronyms, Abbreviations, Initialism & What They Stand For
© 2021 xlsoffice. All Rights Reserved | Teal Smiles