and only the same flavor nozzles can be consolidated as long as the capacity of the machine allows for it on that day

Can you explain that further?

I can't decide which interpretation is correct?

This means I have the volume used per nozzle-flavor-machine combination.

I realise you've said this is an analogy, but can you adapt some of your real-world chemicals data to that analogy and give us something to play with? It doesn't need to be (shouldn't be) a huge volume of data; the key is that you should be able to also supply your desired output. That means you need to show a set of input data, and a corresponding, good (even if not optimal), set of outputs.

On first blush this sounds like a variation on the Knapsack problem which is NP-hard, but many variations of that can be "solved" economically given sufficient domain-specific knowledge and insights.

In essence, I'm saying tell us more about the problem, and give us something real to work on and test our solutions against.


With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". The enemy of (IT) success is complexity.
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

In reply to Re: Tricky chemicals optimization problem by BrowserUk
in thread Tricky chemicals optimization problem by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.