Effective business planning is imperative to succeed in today’s competitive market that is driven by rapid technological advancements. Whether it is a small business or a large-scale organization, strategic planning is essential to achieve higher operational efficiency and drive sustainable growth. Although it needs no explanation that planning has always been at the forefront of every business, the traditional methods do not work anymore. To sustain the cut-throat market competition, it is essential to keep pace with the latest trends and technological advances.
The advent of artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms brought transformative changes to cross-industry businesses in the form of improved strategic planning and intelligent decision-making. To implement AI algorithms and solve operational challenges, we now have planning engines like OptaPlanner that come in handy. OptaPlanner is an AI-based constraint solver that provides comprehensive planning solutions to solve common business problems like employee roster, vehicle routing, and the likes.
Here, we shall explore the significance of OptaPlanner software development with a focus on its key business use cases.
Also, Read Solving Vehicle Routing Problem Using OptaPlanner
What Is OptaPlanner? Why Does It Matter?
OptaPlanner is an open-source embeddable planning engine that enables enterprises to build custom solutions for business process automation. It is a pure Java-based platform that makes it incredibly simple to implement AI algorithms to solve complex business problems. The solution is increasingly lightweight and is fully compatible with many JVM languages such as Scala and Kotlin. It is also referred to as the AI constraint solver that enables Java developers to solve complex optimization problems.
OptaPlanner combines advanced AI techniques like Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing with metaheuristic optimization algorithms to achieve the required functionality. The planning engine by OptaPlanner also supports popular Java frameworks like SpringBoot and Quarkus. In the following section, we shall explore the common business use cases for OptaPlanner.
Business Use Cases
OptaPlanner has gained traction over recent years because of its unique problem-solving capabilities and affordability. As we know, it is open-source and free to use under the Apache software license. Thus, you only have to bear the development cost without spending extra bucks for purchasing the software license. Below are the top business use cases for OptaPlanner software development services.
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Employee Rostering
OptaPlanner provides the complete backend module (OptaWeb) for creating employee rosters for work schedule management and shift planning. It automatically assigns shifts to employees based on the availability of staff and a set of predefined parameters.
The class diagram shown above neatly represents the core functioning of the OptaWeb employee rostering model.
Task Scheduling
There is a dedicated module for task schedule optimization that assigns tasks to employees as per their skills and work experience. Besides, it optimizes the task queue of all employees by reassigning and re-ordering various tasks.
Vehicle Routing In Logistics
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) often arises in logistics management which causes undesirable shipment delays. Here, OptaPlanner provides promising solutions to counter vehicle routing problems by combining complex heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms. OptaPlanner software development services enable logistics companies to optimize the routes of their freight carriers such as delivery trucks, merchant ships, and cargo planes. As a result, it accelerates the delivery of goods while also reducing fuel consumption and related expenses.
Conference Scheduling
OptaPlanner software development makes it easy to conduct various conferences by automatically assigning suitable timeslots based on the availability of rooms and the number of attendees. It automates conference scheduling while adhering to 30+ constraints that can be defined at any given time.
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Closing Thoughts
Due to its low-cost development, OptaPlanner is an ideal solution for small-to-medium enterprises that cannot afford to overspend on their IT investments. OptaPlanner software development services can be tailored to match the diverse needs of enterprises. In addition to the aforementioned business use cases, we can also use OptaPlanner for several non-commercial projects. Some common applications are scheduling exam timetables, hospital or hotel bed planning, scheduling dinner parties, HR recruiting, and more.
How We Help You Enhance Business Productivity Through OptaPlanner Software Development?
At Oodles ERP, we provide full-scale enterprise software solutions using open-source technologies like Odoo, OpenTaps, and ERPNext. We have years of industry experience in building custom enterprise applications and planning solutions to solve complex business problems. Our development team specializes in using OptaPlanner constraint solver to address the diverse business needs of our customers. We also have our expertise in using Java-compatible automation tools like jBPM for effective business process management. For more information, reach out to us at [email protected].
