Selecting Values Based on Constraints

[jmacvicar]

I have a employee job scheduling table that I would like to populate
based on criteria from 2 other tables.

The scheduling table has the employee names listed in each row and
across the top is the period of the day broken into 4 time periods.


The critera tables are:


1. A training matrix that lists the employee names in each row and
the
jobs listed across the top. If an employee is trained, the
intersecting cell has a "T". If they are not trained, the cell is
blank.


2. An attendance table that lists the employee names in each row and
if they are absent, there is an "A" in the next cell. If they are at
work, the cell is blank.


I'd like to be able to populate the scheduling table based on whether
they are trained and present at work. Basically, each day the
attendance table would be updated and then the scheduling table would
be automatically re-calculated. There would need to be provisions to
prevent the same employee from being scheduled on the same job more
than once a day on a certain job unless no one else was trained.

The format of the tables in am using and the output I would like are
as follows:


Table 1 - Training Matrix (Employees in Col A and Job Names in row 3)
A "Y" means that can work that job.


Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4 Job 5
Phil Y Y Y Y
Bill Y Y Y Y
Joe Y Y Y Y
Dan Y Y Y Y Y
Tim Y Y Y Y


Table 2 - Attendance - An "A" means they are absent & cannot be
scheduled


Phil
Bill
Joe A
Dan
Tim


Table 3 - Schedule


7am-9am 9am-11am 11am-1pm 1pm-3pm
Phil Job 1 Job 2 Job 4 Job 5
Bill Job 3 Job 4 Job 5 Job 1
Joe
Dan Job 2 Job 3 Job 1 Job 4
Tim Job 5 Job 1 Job 3 Job 2


Any advice on the best way to approach this would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Nigel]

Use vlookup to get the returned values and then combine the results to flag
who, what and when.

 

[jmacvicar]

Use vlookup to get the returned values and then combine the results to flag
who, what and when.

--

Regards,
Nigel
(e-mail address removed)



















- Show quoted text -

I'm fairly new to this type of thing in Excel. Could you show me an
example ?

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Joel]

Scheduling is not a simple task. You must set up a set of criteria and use
some best fit algorithm to determine the schedule.

The priority should be that each task gets performed with a lower priority
that each person be scheduled to a task only once a day.

Your example shows the selection order going to task 1 first and task 5
last. With the training matrix you may end up with only one person trained
for task 5 and that person may be assigned to task 1. There will be nobody
available to do the task 5 operation.

The proper way to write this type of program is to try every possible
combination of assignments giving a score to each combination. Then choosing
the combination that gets the best score.