Scenario:

Business decisions are often subject to constraints or business rules to solve business problems. Excel’s Solver can be used to develop decisions, such as maximizing profit or reducing costs.

ABCD is a sports equipment manufacturer. They need to find out the ideal number of basketballs and footballs to manufacture to maximize Net Profit. The capacity of production, cost, labor needed, time needed, and other known constraints are provided below:

Production Capability and Constraints (All unit costs are in $ and time in hours):

Total Machine hours available: Min 39,000 – Max 40,000 hrs.

The number of basketballs that could be produced: Min 30,000 – Max 60,000

The number of footballs that could be produced: Min 20,000 – Max 40,000

Ratio of basketballs / footballs: 1.5 – 1.5

Basketball selling Price: $14.00

Football Selling Price: $11.00

Tax Rate: 0.28%

Time to manufacture a Basketball: 0.5 hrs.

Time to manufacture a Football: 0.3 hrs.

Cost of labor -- 1 machine hour: $6.00

Cost of material-- 1 Basketball: $2.00

Cost of material-- 1 Football: $1.25

Set up your spread sheet in Excel’s Solver to determine the optimum number of each product [i.e. Footballs and Basketballs] that should be manufactured to maximize the profit.