I’m fairly new to MS project and could do with some help.

We are a small industrial design company working mainly on motorcycle design. I am using MS Project to help plan/schedule/cost new design projects. I have completed the VTC training DVD (which I borrowed from a friend) so I am probably somewhere between beginner and intermediate level. http://www.vtc.com/products/project2003.htm

Many of our projects include the creation of 1:1 concept model for exhibition purposes. Although all of the clay/hard modelling is done in house a lot of fabrication and rapid prototyping and spraying work is carried out by external suppliers. What is the best way to show this in MS project??

For example we will finish the model for a part (clay model>mould>fibre glass>hand finish) and send it off to be painted professionally by an external supplier. I need to include the time and cost the paint shop estimate to paint the part into my plan. I enter ‘paint part 1’ as the task, the paint company’s quote, £10, into the cost column and the time they estimate they need to complete the job, 10 days, into the duration column. I do the same for another 3 parts which are going to the same paint shop at the same time. I then assign the paint shop as a resource to each of my four tasks. All 4 parts will be sent off for paint at the same time and the paint shop will have them finished in the 10 days. However when I assign the paint shop as the resource for the tasks MS project calculates the duration at 40 days. The only way I have found to work around this is to set the tasks to ‘fixed duration’ and enter 0 into the work column. Isn’t there a better way of assigning a task to an external supplier?? I know I could have a task called ‘paint all parts’ and lump them all together in one go but I want to have them listed individually so I can check each part off as complete whilst the project is running.

I have tried looking for a solution but all I can find is information about external task being linked to other project plans. I don’t have another project plan for how the paint shop will manage painting my parts and really that’s their business all I’m interested in is showing the cost and how long it will take.

Any advice would be truly welcome.

Best regards,
Mark.