I'm trying to teach myself to use Excel solver to take the work out of manually calculating minor production details. but am struggling.
Say I have a make to order job with 7 sizes and I want to run them on 5 machines. I would like the solver to find the optimal order to run them given 5 machines when the same size can be ran on multiple machines. Ideally, the largest order would be ran last so as the other machines finish their batches, the large order could be split into other machines.
Basically,
Given an efficiency standard and number of available machines, I would like the solver to calculate how many hours it'll take to complete each variant in a batch and then assign them to a line to produce. If I have less batches then machines, it'll split the batches onto multiple machines further reducing the overall time to complete the project. Only major rule, would be to always use however many machines I assign to the job (between 1 and 5 machines).
I hope I'm explaining myself well...if someone can point me to a similar tool that it is already floating around the internet or point me in the right direction to create my own tool, I'd really appreciate the support!
Say I have a make to order job with 7 sizes and I want to run them on 5 machines. I would like the solver to find the optimal order to run them given 5 machines when the same size can be ran on multiple machines. Ideally, the largest order would be ran last so as the other machines finish their batches, the large order could be split into other machines.
Basically,
- 5 machines that can all run the same product or different products.
- Each size of the product runs at a different speed.
- Product qty's sizes & qty's vary with each batch
Given an efficiency standard and number of available machines, I would like the solver to calculate how many hours it'll take to complete each variant in a batch and then assign them to a line to produce. If I have less batches then machines, it'll split the batches onto multiple machines further reducing the overall time to complete the project. Only major rule, would be to always use however many machines I assign to the job (between 1 and 5 machines).
I hope I'm explaining myself well...if someone can point me to a similar tool that it is already floating around the internet or point me in the right direction to create my own tool, I'd really appreciate the support!
