thank you! that helped a great deal - i appeciate all your help...i actually
get it now!

"Dana DeLouis" wrote:

what numbers were multiplied to get the 134 t1?

Hi. If you expand the second row, the t1 coefficients add to the
following:

=SUMPRODUCT({18,19,24},{4,2,1})
134

Likewise for t2:
=SUMPRODUCT({29,24,29},{4,2,1})
193

For the x variable, multiply each row's {4,2,1} array with your data, and
then add them up.

{4*53, 2*71, 87},
{4*18, 2*19, 24},
{4*29, 2*24, 29}

The sum of all the numbers is 768.

The hard part is figuring out which solution is acceptable. There just
happened to be 1 integer solution.
There are many more non-integer solutions.

Your new integer solution array is:
{{16, 8, 4}, {52, 26, 13}, {72, 36, 18}}

If we multiply each element in your array
{{53, 71, 87}, {18, 19, 24}, {29, 24, 29}};

We get (ie 16*53, etc)
{{848, 568, 348}, {936, 494, 312}, {2088, 864, 522}}

Whose Total is
6980
--
HTH :)
Dana DeLouis


"Belinda7237" wrote in message
...
Dana -

Thanks for the explanation I validated it with a couple months of my
data
sets and works perfectly - I have a few others of these that i can use
the
same logic t odevelop an equation for so i wanted t obe able to
understand
everything here... I have written it out for myself as you describe here
and
completely understand it...with one exception - what numbers were
multiplied
to get the 134 t1?

Thank you for steering me right with your brillant mind!!!

"Belinda7237" wrote:

I am not sure the best way to solve my problem and am hoping someone
can help.

I want to be able to determine approx how long each item takes to
produce.
I have types of work new, renewal and mod - and then a complexity
level.
I know that it took 6980 total hrs to produce all of these items.

Assumptions that i wanted to build in:
New items take twice as long as renewals and 4 times as long as mods.
Hard items take longer then medium items and medium take longer then
easy.

Totals
NEW RENEWAL MOD
EASY 53 71 87
MEDIUM 18 19 24
HARD 29 24 29


Total Hrs 6980

Is this the type of problem solver can help with, or is there aneasier
way?