In Manufacturing, Mining and many other industries, bulk commodities are received or delivered in batches or parcels of various sizes and with various properties.
Businesses are often required to schedule the usage of these commodities in quantities which differ from the deliveries. Often commodities are used on a First In First Out (FIFO) basis, or they may be scheduled to meet certain input qualities, ie: Constant or Min/Max of an input quality.
This post will give some basic ideas for this type of scheduling within Excel.
Scheduling First in First Out Usage
Unlike my previous posts, this post will not be walking the reader through the actual scheduling or setup of the worksheet, but will look at each section of the scheduling process and discuss the relevant points where appropriate with reference to the implementation in Excel.
The Scheduling Workbook, Page Sched1 shows a simple FIFO schedule using an Iron Ore mine as an example.
Each section below is highlighted in the sample workbook.
Section 1. Inputs
Various parcels of Iron Ore are presented in order of delivery to a plant or as mined.
Each parcel is of a different sizes (Tonnage) as well as having various qualities of 3 different properties, namely the Iron (Fe), Silicon (Si) and Aluminum (Al) content. These are expressed as percentages but could be Kg/t etc.
Parcels may further be categorized as High, Medium or Low Grade.
From a production point of view it is important to know how much feed is required to meet a certain output from a process or what the quality of mixtures will be.
Section 2. Production Schedule
The mine/plant has a production schedule, ie: a quantity of Iron Ore that it is expected to mine or process every month. The schedule may have ups/down to reflect shutdowns, holidays, changes in rosters/workforce etc.
Section 3. Schedule
This part does the mechanics of the actual scheduling, allocating parcels of each block until the monthly requirement is met.
In operation it takes the minimum of the size of each parcel minus what has already been processed from that parcel or the production requirement minus what has already been processed that month.
This is done using a simple Min and Sum formula.
Example: K18: =MIN($C18-SUM($I18:J18),K$6-SUM(K$9:K17))
Conditional formatting is used to highlight the cell as a scheduled cell (tonnes > 0)
Example: Conditional Formatting, Cell Value > 0
Section 4. Reporting
Reporting can be prepared for Month by month production, Cumulative from the start or Remaining until the end.
Sum and Sumproduct formula are used to calculate weighted average for elemental grades as you have the quantity of each parcel, each month and the associated grades in the input areas.
Example: Cumulative %Fe in April 10, K36: =SUMPRODUCT(K$10:K$31,$E$10:$E$31)/K$35
More complex Sumproduct formula are used to report by various classifications.
Examples:
Used High grade tonnage in march, J53: =SUMPRODUCT(1*($D$10:$D$31=$I52),(J$10:J$31))
Used Medium grade %Fe in April 10, K59: =IF(K58>0,SUMPRODUCT(1*(($D$10:$D$31)=$I57)*(K$10:K$31),($E$10:$E$31))/K$58,0)
Section 5. Charting
Having produced a schedule and associated reports you now have a large amount of data which can be plotted to suit requirements.
The Next Step
Once a schedule has been achieved you can feed the production quantities directly into a budget or other downstream system as required.
Scheduling Random or Planned Usage to Achieve Goals
Although the above example, Sched1, is simplistic, First In First Out schedules can and are used in real life. However often some degree of stockpiling is allowed.
This means that parcels can be used in a different order to which they are delivered.
Often this is done so that the input quality of the feed source is varied or maintained, ie Averaged at a level, maintained below or above a level or maximised or minimized according to constraints.
The Scheduling example file, page Sched2 offers a simple manual way to account for this.
Sched2 varies from Sched1 in that it allows manual selection of the order in which parcels are processed.
This is done by simply allowing the user to specify which order parcels will be treated.
The spreadsheet then does all the work with the added benefit of tracking stockpile levels, as often these must be maintained at certain levels.
The spreadsheet has the same reporting and charting functions available as in Sched1.
Summary
In both the examples the scheduling is done using simple, Sum’s, Min and Max formulas.
The actual scheduled production is highlighted using conditional formatting.
The reporting is done using Sum and Sumproduct formulas.
In both examples adjust the values in the various Yellow cells and watch the scheduled tonnages and qualities change.
Next
The purpose of this post was simply to introduce the reader to simple options for scheduling.
It is clear that you now have a simple process from which to derive inputs to a budget, tracking and prediction reports
The post doesn’t attempt to go anywhere near optimization of the schedule using linear programming or other techniques.
However you can see that the addition of Excel solver may be possible to attempt to balance or minimise or maximise outputs, but this is beyond this simple example.
Functions Used:
Min: =Min(Range) returns the Minimum number from the Range
Max: =Max(Range) returns the Maximum number from the Range
Sum: =Sum(Range) adds the values in the Range
If: =If(Condition, Do this if condition is true, Do this if condition is false)
Sumproduct: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/11/10/excel-sumproduct-formula/
How do you Schedule your production scenarios? Let us all know in the comments below:
Next week: Word Art – Yes it has a use !
14 Responses to “How to Add your Macros to QAT or Excel toolbars?”
We have only just got excel 2007 so this is helping me navigate my way through the differences cheers.
For Macro's i always add a Command Button, rename it something obvious, change the colour of it and finally add the following to its View Code section.
Application.Run "MAcro1"
This way anyone opening the file knows what to do if i ever win the lottery and dont make it in 🙂
Hi,
Good article. But I have this problem.
1) Customized QAT with a macro. Macro name = MacroX
2) Runs OK from original location (e.g. C:\TestLoaction1\TestFile.xls)
3) Copy past file to new location (e.g. C:\TestLoaction2\TestFile.xls)
Menu button now fails:
Cannot run the macro "C:\TestLoaction1\TestFile.xls'!MacroX' The macro may not be available in this workbook...
Of course the code is there, and macros are enabled.
Could get it to work after deleting and recreating macro custom buttons. So have to re-assign macro to QAT button every time I move the file?
If I put a form button on he worksheet and assign the macro to that, it's location independent.
Any ideas?
Thanks
@Ron
What you have said is correct
Macros within a worksheet are stored within the worksheet and hence follow it.
Macros referenced by a button in the QAT or elsewhere are locaed in a file and if that file is moved the linkages don't follow.
The easiest way around this is to store all your macros in a location that doesn't move and is in fact reloaded everytime that Excel starts and that is called the Personal.xlsx/b file.
These are refered to several time at Chandoo.org or have a read of
http://www.rondebruin.nl/personal.htm
or
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/deploy-your-excel-macros-from-a-central-file-HA001087296.aspx
In Excel 2003 and prior versions, a button added to the Toolbar maintained a DYNAMIC link to the file (e.g. Personal.xlsb) holding the assigned macro, such that if the file was relocated for any reason (by using Excel's native Save As command rather than just moving it via Windows Explorer), the link between the button and the file was updated.
I expected the same to occur with Excel 2007+, but alas, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have removed another feature useful to advanced users (just as they did by removing the ability to design your own buttons)!!
So having just done some reorganisation of my files, I now have to remove and recreate every friggin macro button on my QAT (I have lots) - what a pain in the proverbial!!
Hi Hui,
Thanks for the help, that's really useful.
1) The macros I'm adding are for one specific Excel application, so I really wanted the macros to follow the file
2) I didn't want to have to pass other files around too and have users installing those - either Personal.xlsx/b or as an Add-In.
3) I realise now that the QAT additions will appear for other Excel workbooks in which I don't want the macros available.
So, it looks like I need to keep it local, by using a button on the worksheet. Unless you can suggest any way of adding to menus just for a specific workbook.
Thanks again for your help. Great site, so I'll be signing up for the emails.
Ron
I know I'm a little late jumping on this post, but wondering if anyone knows how to add a UDF to the QAT? I've saved my UDF in my personal workbook, but it does not show up in my list when I choose Macros when customizing my QAT. Suggestions? Thanks!!
@Cheryl: UDFs cannot be accessed like Macros. You can use them from other macros or from worksheet cells as formulas...
@David: If you save your macros file and then install it as an add-in then it will be always available for you.
The instructions work great when you are creating a new file, and it is still open. I find that I can't access macros after I've saved a file as an xlam and closed it. When I reopen the xlam, either by browsing to it, or by having it set to open as an addin using Excel Options, the macros are no longer available in the macros list when I go to edit the QAT. Any way around that?
[...] Add this macro as a button to Quick Access Toolbar [...]
I need to create a button that will run a macro. Once you click the button it needs to open up a browser asking you to select a report/file. Once you select the file, it will run the macro on the selected file and then save it as a new report with a name and the current date. I created the macro to sort/modify the report but I do not know how to do what I mentioned above. I hope this makes sense.
I'm having trouble adding a macro to the QAT. I've done everything up to step 5 but my macro isn't showing up. What am I doing wrong?
[...] Add Macros to Quick Access Toolbar (works in Excel 2003 & above) [...]
Hi,
Thank you for the explanation. Very useful for a recent switcher from office 2003 to office 2010.
My follow-up question is: in Excel (or ppt) 2010, can you customize the macro button that you put in the QAT?
In office 2003, once you chose the custom button for your Macro, you could then edit pixel by pixel the said button.
For instance, I've created 2 Macros in PPT that are converting all my slides to either English or French language, so I'd like one button to show EN and the other FR... that would be more meaningful that any of the possible "custom" office 2010 buttons
I read all the post and one important aspect to the QAT was never mentioned. That is, you have a macro driven worksheet that you want to share with other. You have customized the QAT with two icons to run the macros (VBA programs in reality). However, when the others receive the workbook, the icons are no where to be found. It's my understanding those "customized buttons" have been saved to an outside file, Excel.qat. QUESTION: Could one simply attach that file to your email, along with the worksheet, and tell the recipients to copy that file to correct location on their computer - C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office|\
Would the customize macro buttons then appear in the worksheet and, more importantly, work? Thanks for your thoughtfulness and thanks for well written instructions Chandoo!
MortW