Hi,
My son fits out new houses with shelving. He measures and notes all the
requirements. The data will look something like this:
12 lengths of 0.9 metres
15 lengths of 1.4 metres
8 lengths of 2.1 metres
4 lengths of 2.5 meters

Shelving comes in a range of standard lengths: 1.8m, 2.4m, 3.0m, 3.6m

Currently he spends a great deal of time trying to figure how many of each
standard length to buy, to keep waste (and therefore cost) to a minimum. He
asked me if Excel could do this sort of thing. €œOf course!€� I said. However,
after several attempts, I am no closer to a solution than when I started.
Can anyone tell me how to even start, or point me to a site that deals with
this sort of issue?
Regards €“ Dave.

Maybe this gets you started:

http://www.solver.com/solutions/procutstock.htm

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My son fits out new houses with shelving. He measures and notes all the
requirements. The data will look something like this:
12 lengths of 0.9 metres
15 lengths of 1.4 metres
8 lengths of 2.1 metres
4 lengths of 2.5 meters

Shelving comes in a range of standard lengths: 1.8m, 2.4m, 3.0m, 3.6m

Currently he spends a great deal of time trying to figure how many of each
standard length to buy, to keep waste (and therefore cost) to a minimum.
He
asked me if Excel could do this sort of thing. €œOf course!€� I said.
However,
after several attempts, I am no closer to a solution than when I started.
Can anyone tell me how to even start, or point me to a site that deals
with
this sort of issue?
Regards €“ Dave.