Everyone fits. Did anyone actually get what they wanted?
Thirty-two guests in eight groups that cannot be split, three tables of twelve, and one rule: the two work groups must not share. Filling the tables in order seats everyone, scores 60, and puts both work groups together.
Operations Starter Optimization free
After you install, this is the model to open.
Seat Everyone Without Breaking the Rules
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
The pencil plan against the optimized one:
- Optimized score
- 65 with the rule kept
- Pencil plan
- 60 and the rule broken
- Table sizes
- 11 / 11 / 10 guests
- What the rule costs
- 4 points 69 without it
The interesting number is the last one. Remove the keep-apart rule and the best possible plan scores 69, so that promise costs 4 points of everybody else's preferences, which turns an argument about a seating plan into a figure two people can look at together. Add a fourth table as a column and rerun if someone asks whether hiring one more round is worth it. The scores are the whole model, so a plan built on lazy scoring is a lazy plan wearing an optimizer's clothes.
The model
One row per group with its size and a 0 to 10 score for each table. Seats are a limit, the keep-apart pair is a limit, and the objective is the total of the scores the plan actually collects.
| Groups / guests | 8 / 32 |
| Tables | 3, twelve seats each |
| Preference scores | 0 to 10 per group per table |
| The rule | the two work groups must not share |
| Total happiness score | solved |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
- What is the cheapest menu that still keeps every promise?Feed Everyone for the Least Money
- Which venue is actually cheapest per head?Rank the Venues on What They Cost You
- More invitations, or more notice?What Predicts Turnout?
- Packing the best thing first. What does that cost you?Fit the Most Into One Box
- Does the cheapest quote stay cheapest after freight?Which Suppliers Fill the Order Cheapest?
- When does the next unit of stock stop paying?How Much Safety Stock Do We Actually Need?
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Optimization in Google Sheets.