Excel OpenSolver Equivalent in Alteryx for Optimization

[R_s_j]

Hello!

I am using Alteryx to set up a mentor allocation program in my university. My task is to assign 'mentors' from the senior batch to the incoming batch of new students. So far, I have been able to create an 'affinity matrix' which shows how suited each junior is to each senior, with lower affinity indicating a closer match. I was using Excel's OpenSolver to optimize this entire dataset as per constraints, but am having issues accessing that now and want to replicate the output on Alteryx.

Snapshot of dataset:

Name	Max Mentees	J1	J2	J3
S1	4	125	250	280
S2	3	125	250	290
S3	5	160	215	255
S4	2	290	190	165
S5	3	330	230	285
S6	5	215	255	305
S7	4	235	160	210
S8	2	285	200	160

(This indicates that Senior 8 has an affinity of 285 with Junior 1, 200 with Junior 2 and 160 with Junior 3, hence is best matches with Junior 3 here.)

The constraints are :
1. The maximum mentees assigned to a senior student are indicated in the Max Mentors column.
2. Each junior student must be assigned exactly 2 mentors.

I tried going through earlier questions in the community and using the Optimization tool in Alteryx, but haven't been able to set it up correctly. My goal is to get an output indicating which juniors should be assigned to which seniors to minimize the total affinity.

Thanks and Regards,

R

[PeterA1]

HI @R_s_j I think you might be looking for the optimization tool which can likely help solve this type of problem. This tool mastery article shows examples of how to utilize this function! 

Hope this helps

Best,

Peter