Need help creating a price chart with three factors

[Copperhead]

Hello Physics Forum Members,

This is my first post. I am an executive who needs help with something that will likely be a very simple matter to the majority of you and I simply didn't trust a resource like Yahoo! Answers.

My challenge is to come up with a pricing plan for a new product. However, price is determined by several factors and I need to know how to calculate and display the price in a simplistic way.

Factors that determine price:
Hospital bed size
Admissions Rate
Total Number of Active Nurses and Doctors

The idea hit me on the way to work this morning that this chart looks very similar to the pantyhose sizing chart (yes I'm a woman). It's not linear. There's overlapping and different combinations produce different prices. http://kneesntoes.com/skin/frontend/default/modern/images/catalog/product/melas-pantyhose-size-chart.jpg

Is there a specific name for this type of chart?
Is there an open-source application that would allow me to plug in the data and create the chart?

Sorry for such a mundane posting, but I would really appreciate the power of the collective genius found in a forum like this to assist me with this challenge.

 

[Diffy]

The chart looks very simple to me, each specific height and weight has one size. If I had to call that something I would simple call it a Heat Map. But it is just a simple grid where each cell has one specific value.

 

[Copperhead]

Thank you Diffy. The challenge is the pantyhose chart only accounts for two variables - height and weight. Our pricing has three variables. How/where would I incorporate the third variable?Googling heat maps...

It looks like I might be able to use Google Fusion Tables to create a visual.

 

[Diffy]

Yes, there are ways to do a 3D heat map.

But there may be easier, better ways to visualize your information. It just depends on what your data actually looks like.

A simple filter in an excel pivot table can provide slices of a third dimensions, or nested columns or rows.

It's very hard to say what the best approach is. It always depends on the data.

 

[Copperhead]

Thank you Diffy. I will look closely at the Excel pivot table.