My disclaimer from my first reply still holds. 'Gross' tuning of SQL is not so hard. In order to generally tune a statement, one needs to know the
- statement
- plan
- table sizes
- abailable indexes
... and that is just to generally tune the statement, which you have already done.

To *fine* tune the statement, I need the database. There's no other way around it.

So, unfortunately, as I said the first time, there's precious little I can do for you.

Again, however, I re-state that you have done a fine job. Your lead dba needs to have his head checked. :) Setting arbitrary goals is kinda pointless.

However, if he/she is trying to 'teach' you how to optimize, then that is a different story. I do the same thing with the people I teach. I figure out the best path and then give them a goal to shoot for. If this is the case, good luck.

If your lead dba has *not* already determined how to optimize this statement, the he/she may be pulling numbers out of thin air and this may *not* actually be an attainable goal.

In any case, I doubt that I can help you. However, I am willing to give it a shot if you want to take the time to provide me with *every* piece of info you have - indexes, table sizes, distribution, histograms, plans - *anything* that could help. Simply providing the statement is wholly insufficient.

- Chris