Frontline Systems, Excel Solver, optimization software, Solver Excel, simulation software
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From Frontline Systems, developers of the Excel Solver.

Solver tutorials

Learn to use optimization for resource allocation, and Monte Carlo simulation for risk analysis of your model.


 

Select the Best Optimization or Simulation Product for Your Needs

Which Solver product is best for me?

To select the best choice from our suite of products, consider these two questions:

  • Do you want to define your model in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or in a program written in Visual Basic or C/C++, VB.NET or C#, or Java or MATLAB?
  • Which technology -- simulation, optimization, or both -- do you need?  This depends on whether you're trying to analyze risk or allocate scarce resources -- or both, as discussed below.

If your main goal is to solve an optimization problem, also consider these questions:

  • What type of optimization problem (linear, nonlinear, mixed-integer, etc.) do you want to solve?  Does it involve uncertainty?
  • What size of problem (number of decision variables and constraints) do you want to solve?

Many of our users work with both Excel and a language such as Visual Basic, C/C++ or MATLAB.  Many users also build both models that use simulation, and models that use optimization.  Frontline Systems offers Solver products that cover multiple types of problems, and we'll point this out as we go.

Which Platform: Spreadsheet or Custom Program?

You can define and solve any type, and almost any size, of optimization or simulation model in either Excel or in a custom program.  The choice should be determined primarily by what tool is most familiar and most productive for you, and how your model will be used by "end users" (if they are people other than you).

What's Most Familiar.  If you are familiar with Excel but not with programming, your choice is easy:  Click Select Best Excel Product.  Similarly, if you're an experienced programmer but you've never used Excel, you'll probably want to click Select Best SDK Product.

What's Most Productive.  For most users, it is faster to define, and later modify, a simulation or optimization model using cells and formulas in Excel than to write an equivalent program that uses variables and statements to compute the same values.  This is usually a major reason for choosing Select Best Excel Product.

Where the Data Lives.  Both resource allocation and risk analysis problems often require numeric input data, sometimes in large amounts, drawn from other sources.  If your data is easily available in Excel, your best choice is probably Select Best Excel Product.  If you can more easily access the data from a programming language, then Select Best SDK Product. is probably your best choice.

What's Convenient for Your Users.  If you are building an application for end users other than yourself, an important consideration is whether they will have Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Office available on their computers.  If so, then our Excel Products may be your best choice.  If not -- if your end users are consumers, work for different companies, or will access your application using a Web browser -- then our SDK Products are likely your best choice.  In either case, we offer flexible runtime licenses, on similar terms for both our Excel and SDK Products.

Flexible Solver Engines.  Unlike most other optimization software, Frontline Systems' large-scale Solver Engines "plug in" to both our Risk Solver Platform and Premium Solver Platform for Excel, and our Solver Platform SDK for COM, .NET, Java and MATLAB.  A single license for a Solver Engine entitles you to develop for any of these platforms and languages!  So you have maximum flexibility in developing and deploying your application.

Which Technology: Simulation, Optimization, or Both?

Simulation is most often applied to risk analysis problems:  You build a model that includes certain factors or parameters that are uncertain -- and you'll probably spend some time deciding how to model the uncertainty.  Your model calculates outcomes of interest, such as Net Profit, inventory levels, or delay times, that depend on both factors you can control, and the uncertain factors you can't control.  You use Monte Carlo simulation to "stress test" your model over thousands of trials, to see what can go right, and what can go wrong -- and by how much.  You can use Risk Solver Platform, Risk Solver Premium, or Risk Solver in Excel, or our Solver Platform SDK in a programming language to solve such problems.

Optimization is most often applied to resource allocation problems.  The resources may be raw materials, machine time or people time, money, or anything else in limited supply. The "best" or optimal solution may mean maximizing profits, minimizing costs, or achieving the best possible quality.  You build a model that includes decision variables for quantities of resources, and calculated results, called constraints, that are subject to limits -- such as a budget, capacity limit, or time constraint.  Your calculated objective is the result you'd like to maximize or minimize.  You can use Risk Solver Platform, Premium Solver Platform, or Premium Solver in Excel, or our Solver Platform SDK in a programming language to solve such problems.

What if you need to allocate scarce resources under conditions of uncertainty and risk?  In a sense, most business problems have these characteristics -- it is just a matter of degree!  If both the allocation issues and the risk issues are significant, and your problem is modest in size (50-100 decisions, not thousands of decisions), you can use simulation optimization to find the allocation of resources that best satisfies your objective and constraints, over a range of outcomes that reflect the uncertainties in your model.  Risk Solver Platform for Excel is the ultimate tool for these problems; but if it's too much for your budget right now, you can start with Risk Solver Premium in Excel.  In you're working outside Excel in a programming language, you can use our Solver Platform SDK.

Risk Solver Platform for Excel has further advantages if your optimization problem involves uncertainty and is larger in size, or if it involves recourse decisions (also called "wait and see" decisions).  It's the only tool -- available anywhere, at any price -- that can automatically analyze and transform your model and use methods such as robust optimization and stochastic programming to find a robust optimal solution.  You can do this outside Excel in a programming language, but you must write code to handle this type of problem, instead of having your Excel model automatically transformed.

What Type and Size of Problem?

If you plan to solve an optimization problem of significant size -- more than a few hundred decision variables and constraints -- you should also consider -- and learn more about -- the type and size of your problem, since this will have a big impact on solution time, memory required, and even the solvability of your model.  To learn more about this issue in Excel, click Select Best Excel Product below.  To learn more about this issue in a custom program written in Visual Basic or C/C++, VB.NET or C#, or Java or MATLAB, click Select Best SDK Product below. 

Select Best Excel Product >

Select Best SDK Product >