Your problem sounds somewhat like the classic "product mix" problem taught in
basic linear programming courses.

Solver can do it. There's brief tutorial he

http://www.solver.com/

You should also have an Excel file with Solver example on your PC called:

SolvSamp.xls

I'm using WinXP / Office 2003 and I found it he

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\SAMPLES

I'd also see what's availlable from Microsoft on-line. For example:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...245951033.aspx

HTH
Jason
Atlanta, GA




"bonjella" wrote:

Hello all,

I have a spreadsheet to help me work out what commodities I should buy
to sell on at a profit.

In the system / world I'm dealing with you can order batches of
products to be made, and then sell them off individually, e.g. a pallet
of bricks at £100 contains 500 bricks, which you could sell at £1
each, resulting in a profit of £400 - as long as the market can take
500 bricks...

All well and good. I tell my spreadsheet there is a market for 1000
bricks, and it tells me to buy 2 batches and I'll make a profit of
£800 - thank you spread sheet :-)

Now.... there are not only bricks, there are all kinds of commodities
available, some with more profit available than others, with different
market saturation points (is that the phrase?), different batch sizes
and so on and so forth, which brings me to my question.

Is there a way, possibly using 'solver' to say to my spreadsheet 'I
have £10,000 here - what should I buy with that to make the most
profit, and what would that profit be?'??

Ideally I would like to add another column to my sheet, put in my
budget at the top and it tells me how many batches of each item I
should buy (e.g. 2 bricks, 1 carpet tiles, 7 lots of doors).

I'm not really sure what I should be searching for, so any comments at
all would be helpful!

Many thanks,

Amy