3.5 Formulating and solving linear programming models on a spreadsheet
Spreadsheet software, such as Excel, is a popular to for analysis and solving small linear programming problems. The mean features of a linear programming model, including all its parameter, can be easily entered onto a spreadsheet. However, spreadsheet software can do much more than just display data. If we include some additional information, the spreadsheet can be used to quickly analyze potential solutions. For example, a potential solution can be checked to see if it is feasible and what Z value (profit or cost) it achieves. Much of the power of the spreadsheet lies in its ability to immediately reveal the results of any changes made in the solution.
In addition, the Excel Solver can quickly apply the simplex method to find an optimal solution for the model. We will describe how this is done in the letter part of this section.
To illustrate this process of formulating and solving linear programming models on a spreadsheet, we now return to the Wyndor example introduced in SEC. 3.1.