Optimize SPM Tasks

In many cases, an SPM plan contains several recurring tasks that overlap, such as tasks scheduled weekly, monthly, and quarterly. When the task requirements are such that completing one task satisfies requirements of the other tasks, the Plan Optimization feature allows the SPM scheduler to take this into account and thus prevent duplication of scheduled tasks. Read Schedule Optimization for steps about this feature.

Note:

•Only tasks with compatible content can be optimized (i.e. matching samples, activities).

•Tasks will be optimized into the less-frequent task. E.g. if a weekly task's content matches with a monthly task, the monthly task will be scheduled in behalf of both tasks.

For example, assume a plan consists of three recurring tasks:

Task Code	Recurrence	Recurrence Details
Q	Quarterly	1st day, every 3 months
M	Monthly	15th day, every 1 month
W	Weekly	Monday, every 1 week

The following shows task recurrence in period of three months, starting in January

January					February					March
Q1
M1					M2					M3
W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8	W9	W10	W11	W12	W13	W14

Sets of redundant tasks:

•Q1, M1, W2

•M2, W7

•M3, W12

Using SPM Plan Optimization, redundant tasks can be optimized and the following task schedule can be obtained.

January					February					March
Q1
W1	W2 (M1, Q1)	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7, (M2, Q1)	W8	W9	W10	W11	W12 (M3, Q1)	W13	W14

Optimized tasks:

•Q1, M1, W2

•Q1, M2, W7

•Q1, M3, W12