Out of ideas... Need to build buckets

[ladazhome]

Hello all,

Im running out of ideas. So Ive to build buckets from the attached file using the Construction column. This field represents hours and I need to put together 160 hrs buckets +/-10 hrs. Doesnt have to be exactly 160 hrs, but closer as posisble. After it, I must assign a unique ID to the group of rows I used. Besides if I use a row as part of a group, I cant use it anymore

Something else is that any row has>160 hrs.

I already tried with three different Multiple Row- Formulas... but I guess... Im running our of ideas now. 

Any ideas? Any related post/solution you recall?

Thank you

[CoG · Accepted solution]

Have you tried Tile Tool? You can configure to Tile with "Equal Sum", this will either maintain the order of the input or can be sorted by column of your choice. This is a non-trivial problem. One approach to minimizing the error is to setup a Monte Carlo simulation via the Generate Rows Tool or using Iterative Macros, whereby you randomize the order of the dataset, and run the Tile Tool repeatedly trying to find the smallest possible error (using metric of your choice e.g. fewest groups with sums more than +/- 10 from 160, lowest absolute error or std dev). That grouping is what you use to label the data.

Hope this helps and Happy Solving!

[ladazhome]

Thank you so much for the quick response and tips. I will bring it and definitely consider a Monte Carlo simulation to improve my results.