Hi
don't think Excel is the right tool for this 8probably the
reason why you didn't receive an answer for your first
post).
Not sure how many parts you have but this could be quite
complicated (linear programming exercise). Maybe a project
planning tool is more suited (though you have to do a lot
of things manually).
There also could be more than one possible solution and
you have to decide which solution you want to use (or
maybe it's sufficient to get only one possible solution
and skip all the other ones)

Of course you could implement this kind of optimization
code in VBA (but this will take some time IMO)


-----Original Message-----
I've posted this problem before and have not as of yet
got any response, let's try again. Here?Ts what I got:

I have a list of part numbers with due dates and
operation times and status (see below)

Part Number Due Date Labor Time Status
1000 5/3/04 3 hours
Critical
2000 5/4/04 2 hours
Non-Critical
3000 5/4/04 2 hours
Non-Critical
3000 5/4/04 2 hours
Non-Critical
2000 5/5/04 2 hours
Non-Critical

Here are the conditions the sort must follow:

1. Critical status parts get priority regardless of
due date
2. If part non-critical, then part with earliest due
date gets priority
3. If two non-critical parts are due the same day,
then the tie-breaker can be lowest part number
4. Only 5 hours available to work in a day
5. Cannot work the same part number twice in a single
five hour day

If the code works, it should look something like this

Part Number Due Date Labor Time
Status Day
1000 5/3/04 3 hours
Critical 1
2000 5/4/04 2 hours Non-
Critical 1

3000 5/4/04 2 hours Non-
Critical 2
2000 5/5/04 2 hours Non-
Critical 2

3000 5/4/04 2 hours Non-
Critical 3

.