Extreme Challenge : Solver to optimize a perfect combination/blend of supplier

**chris1089** · 01-07-2015, 11:20 AM

Hi Guys

I am looking help regarding a particular challenging problem that I have. I am not entirely sure what function/programme to use in excel to accomplish this. I will try to simplify the challenge as much as I can:

- there is 1 customer who has a potential of 10 suppliers
- the customer can receive products from all suppliers simultaneously. However the majority of the time the customer receives products from a few depending on supplier performance. For example, if two out of ten suppliers are the best and are equally effective then a 50/50% split is conducted between the two while the rest (8) of the suppliers are ignored. However if one of the two is better than the other then perhaps a 70/30% split occurs.
- There are two factors which determine a supplier's effectiveness. These are variables quality and cost.

Aim:
- I want excel to calculate and allocate a percentage split to suppliers based on the two variables (quality and cost saving).
- Quality has a minimum and maximum(I wont explain why for now) benchmark.
- Cost saving potential is unlimited so long as it does not reduce quality (lets say no lower than 3% of the quality benchmark).

can I accomplish this with solver? if not what can I use and roughly how

Thanks a lot

**protonLeah** · 01-07-2015, 03:23 PM

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