Guide
Read the Answer
After the solver runs, the Results screen starts with the baseline answer, then separates driver analysis, robustness checks, scenario comparison, exploration tools, and report exports. Use it as a decision workflow: what is possible, why, how the result changes under different assumptions, and which change to test next.
How the Results screen is organized
The tabs keep the answer itself separate from deeper diagnostics:
Baseline answer, next move, binary decisions, multi-period details, and the solved flow network.
Most sensitive drivers, marginal values, tradeoff analysis, the next limiting constraint, and all constraints.
Stability summary, pressure test, and stochastic feasibility under configured uncertainty ranges.
Scenario B, changed assumptions, network diff, intervention library, and hypothesis interpreter.
Decision map, Pareto frontier, and feasible window for exploring larger parts of the decision space.
Decision brief, PDF and CSV exports, constraint audit, input documentation, and scenario evidence.
Answer: baseline and next move
The baseline answer is the optimal feasible value for the selected objective under the current assumptions. For a maximization objective it is the highest achievable outcome; for a minimization objective it is the lowest achievable cost or resource use.
Below the headline value, the Answer tab calls out the binding constraint, the strongest sensitivity signal when it differs, and the Next move: a concrete relaxation or test to stage before tuning lower-impact assumptions.
The flow network shows how volume moves through the solved plan. Thick paths carry more flow, highlighted paths are at capacity, and the expandable flow data table lists path volume, capacity used, and resource totals.
If you are running a multi-period plan, the answer also shows horizon totals, average value per period, demand growth, carry-over settings, inventory, backlog, and period-by-period trajectory details when available.
Drivers: why the solver chose it
Active limits, also called binding constraints, are constraints fully used up by the baseline answer. They have zero slack, so the solver cannot improve the objective without changing one of those limits or the model structure.
The Most sensitive drivers panel ranks the limits with the largest local impact. When pressure-test results are ready, the ranking reflects objective loss under stress. Otherwise it falls back to marginal value near the current solution.
How much the optimized outcome improves when a constraint is relaxed by one unit. For yes/no or integer decisions, treat this as approximate.
Sweep one constraint from tighter to looser and see how the objective changes. The current setup is marked so you can compare nearby alternatives.
Re-solves the top binding constraints after a 10% relaxation and shows whether the same limit still governs the result or a new active limit takes over.
The All constraints table is the audit view: each limit is labeled Binding, Near limit, or Available, with its current limit and remaining room.
Robustness: testing assumptions
The Robustness tab asks whether the baseline answer still holds when assumptions move against it. The pressure test tightens one limit at a time by the selected level and re-solves. A result can stay stable, lose objective value, or become infeasible.
Stochastic feasibility uses the uncertainty ranges you set in Step 3. It samples many deterministic scenarios, reports the feasibility rate, shows the feasible objective spread, and attributes failed samples to the constraints most associated with failure.
Use pressure test for a quick local fragility check. Use stochastic feasibility when you have uncertainty percentages configured and need to estimate how often sampled scenarios survive variation.
Compare: Scenario B against baseline
The Compare tab stages a second scenario beside the baseline. Scenario B can come from a preset, an intervention, manual changes, a selected decision-map region, or a plain-language hypothesis.
The comparison shows objective delta, changed assumptions, active-limit changes, flow shifts, and a network diff. If Scenario B is better and still feasible, you can promote it so future comparisons use it as the new baseline.
- -Presets cover broad moves such as aggressive growth, budget cuts, and supplier slip.
- -The intervention library stages model-specific moves, such as raising capacity or expanding a route.
- -The hypothesis interpreter turns a plain-language what-if into proposed constraint and edge changes that you can review before solving Scenario B.
Explore: compare a range of assumptions
The Explore tab is for questions bigger than one baseline-vs-scenario comparison.
Sweeps two constraints on a grid. Colors show which limit is active, amber rings mark transitions, and dark points are infeasible. You can compare a selected region in Scenario B.
Shows efficient tradeoffs between two objectives. Selecting a frontier point reveals active limits, limit-status changes, and marginal shifts from the previous point.
Draws the boundary between feasible and infeasible combinations for two high-impact constraints while preserving the current objective level.
Report: share and audit the solve
The Report tab collects the decision brief, exports, constraint audit, input documentation, robustness evidence, and scenario evidence. Copy brief is a compact narrative for sharing; Download PDF creates a decision report; CSV exports include the scenario comparison and constraint audit tables.
Input documentation is a data-quality view, not a mathematical guarantee. It shows which inputs have sources, owners, input confidence, value types, notes, and optional review bounds so you know what to validate before acting on the answer. See Assumptions & Validation for the full workflow.
No workable plan
When no plan can satisfy all constraints simultaneously, SSPLAX shows a No workable plan state instead of the normal Results tabs. This means the assumptions contradict each other or require more capacity than the model allows.
If pre-solve checks find direct contradictions, review those first. Otherwise, the solver lists ways to make it workable: ranked single-limit changes that could restore feasibility. Each option shows which constraint to increase or decrease, by how much, and the required value.
Use Apply when you want to stage one of those changes, or Review constraints when the right fix should be edited manually. For scenario workflows, see Decision Workflow.