Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Outline:
To begin using Excel, double-click on the Excel icon. Once Excel has loaded, enter the
inputdata and construct relationships among data elements in a readable, easy to
understand way.When building this foundation for your model, think ahead about the
optimization model youwill be developing. Make sure there is a cell in your spreadsheet
for each of the following:
If you don’t have any particular initial values you want to enter for your decision
variables, you can start by just entering a value of 0 in each decision variable cell.
The cell below “Total” and the cells below “LHS” in the spreadsheet are defined by using
the SUMPRODUCT function in the manner seen below.
If you are not familiar with “sum product”, you can use “= B3*B5+C3*C5” instead of
“sum product(B3:C3,B5:C5)”, and so on. See example below. Both serve the same
purpose.
1.2 Constructing an Optimization Model Using Solver
Once you are satisfied with the basic spreadsheet model you have built, you are ready to
build an optimization model using Solver. To begin using Solver,
A gray dialogue box will appear. You will build the constrained optimization model
using this dialogue box.
1.2 Selecting the Cell to Optimize
To select the cell you wish to optimize, look at the “Set Cell” window within the dialogue
box. Erase (or simply drag the cursor over) everything that is in that window. Then, either
• type the addresses of every cell you wish to treat as a decision variable, separating
them by commas, or
• drag the cursor across all cells you wish to treat as decision variables.
If you wish to use the “dragging” method, but the decision variables to not all lie in a
connected rectangle in the spreadsheet you can “drag” them in one group at a time:
To begin entering constraints, click on the “Add” button to the right of the constraints
window. A new dialogue box will appear. The cursor will be in the “Cell Reference”
window within this dialogue box.
• Type the cell address that contains the quantity you want to constrain, or
• click on the cell that contains the quantity you want to constrain.
Again, if the dialogue box is in the way, you can move it by dragging the bar at the top of
the box. The default inequality that first appears for a constraint is “<=“. To change this,
• click on the arrow beside the “<=“ sign.
• Select the inequality (or equality) you wish from the list provided.
(Notice that you may also force a decision variable to be an integer using this window. I
do not recommend that you use this integer feature for this course.)
After setting the inequality, move the cursor to the “Constraint” window.
• Type the number or the cell reference you want to use as the constraining value
for that constraint, or
• click on the cell you want to use as the constraining value for that constraint.
Do not forget to put in non-negativity constraints for all decision variables!! Solver
does not automatically include them. To do this,
• When in the “Cell Reference” window, drag across the column (or row) of cells you
want to constrain.
• Then, in the “Constraint” window, drag across the column (or row) of cells that you
want to use as the constraining values.
If, in the process of building you optimization model, you discover that your spreadsheet
is missing some pieces (e.g., you want to constrain some quantity, but you did not include
a cell for that quantity in your spreadsheet),
Once you are satisfied with the optimization model you have input, click on the
“Options”button in the Solver dialogue box. If you are solving a linear program,
• Click on the “Assume Linear Model” box - make sure a check appears in this box.
• Click on the “OK” button to return to the original dialogue box.
• “Optimal solution found”. This means that Solver has found the optimal solution.
• “Cell values did not converge”. This means that the objective function can be improved
to infinity. You may have forgotten a constraint or made a mistake in a formula.
• “Solver could not find a feasible solution”. This means that Solver could not find a
feasible solution to the constraints you entered. You may have made a mistake in typing
the constraints or in entering a formula in your spreadsheet.
• “Conditions for Assume Linear Model not satisfied”. You may have forgotten to
include some non-negativity constraints, or you may have included a formula in your
model that is nonlinear. There is also a slim chance that Solver has made an error. (This
bug shows up occasionally.)
If Solver finds an optimal solution, you have some options. First, you must choose
whether you want Solver to keep the optimal values in the spreadsheet (you usually want
this one) or go back to the original numbers you typed in. Click the appropriate box to
make you selection. You also get to choose what kind of reports you want. Sometimes
you want to select “Sensitivity Report”. Once you have made your selections, click on
“OK”. To view the sensitivity report, click on the “Sensitivity Report” tab in the lower-
left-hand corner of the window
.
1.9 Saving and Printing Files
To print your spreadsheet, simply make sure the spreadsheet is on the screen, then
• click on “File”, and
• select “Print”.
If you want to make changes in the way the file will print (e.g., print is sideways on the
page (landscape), etc.), select “Page Setup” instead. Make the appropriate changes, then
select “Print”. Again, see a consultant if you need additional help.
To print your sensitivity report, simply make sure the report is on the screen and repeat
the above steps.