Your OptaPlanner application needs a platform around it
OptaPlanner is a well-proven constraint solver. But a solver without work orders, asset data, inventory records, and workforce management is a scheduling engine with nowhere to go. Facterra is the platform that turns an OptaPlanner application into an operations system.
The OptaWeb orphan problem
If your scheduling product is built on OptaWeb, you are maintaining an abandoned application
Teams ended up with OptaPlanner in production in two ways. The hard way: a custom application built against the solver library. The common way: a product built on OptaWeb — the ready-made vehicle routing and employee rostering applications Red Hat shipped alongside the solver.
If you are in the second group, your application now sits on abandoned layers. The OptaWeb front ends were marked "no longer maintained" in November 2023. The Red Hat build of the solver went end of life in May 2024. The upstream repository was archived in July 2026. Timefold maintains the solver's successor — but nobody, of any size, maintains OptaWeb itself.
Migrating the solver to Timefold fixes the bottom layer. It does nothing for the application above it: the routing screens, the rostering workflows, the work orders, mobile execution. The real decision is not OptaPlanner versus Timefold. It is maintaining an abandoned application indefinitely, or moving onto a platform that is maintained — with the solver as a feature, not a liability.
November 2023
OptaWeb abandoned
optaweb-vehicle-routing and optaweb-employee-rostering are marked "no longer maintained". No vendor has shipped a fix since.
May 2024
Solver end of life
The Red Hat build of OptaPlanner 8 reaches end of life. Support subscriptions end; customers are pointed at the fork.
July 2026
Upstream archived
The Apache OptaPlanner repository is archived and folded into the Drools repo. There is no solver roadmap left to wait for.
OptaPlanner platform problem
The OptaPlanner solver is the easy part — the platform around it takes 18 months
You built an OptaPlanner application — or you are evaluating whether to build one. The constraint solver works. What does not work is everything around it: the asset data it needs, the work orders it schedules, the inventory it checks, the workforce records it queries, and the evidence trail it should produce.
Most organisations that deploy OptaPlanner end up building a maintenance platform around it from scratch. That is 18–24 months of development before the solver delivers value. Facterra is that platform — already built, already deployed at 50+ facilities, already integrated with OptaPlanner.
Without a platform
- ×Solver runs in isolation
- ×Manual data feeds from spreadsheets
- ×No evidence trail
- ×No mobile execution
- ×No subcontractor access
- ×12–24 months to build the surrounding system
With Facterra
- ✓Solver connected to live operations data
- ✓Work orders, assets, inventory feed it directly
- ✓Evidence-grade execution records
- ✓Mobile + voice + multilingual
- ✓Licence-free subcontractor links
- ✓Weeks to deploy, not years
Facterra platform for OptaPlanner
Facterra provides everything the OptaPlanner solver needs
Facterra asset register
Three-hierarchy asset management with IoT integration. The OptaPlanner solver knows what needs maintenance and what condition it is in.
Facterra work order engine
Corrective and preventive work orders with dependencies. The OptaPlanner solver schedules real work, not abstract tasks.
Facterra inventory & parts
Parts availability feeds the solver directly from the Facterra database. No scheduling a job when the part will not arrive until next week.
Facterra workforce records
Certifications, availability, location. The OptaPlanner solver assigns the right person, not just the next available one.
Facterra mobile execution
The scheduled work actually gets done — with evidence. Facterra link-based access for subcontractors, voice capture for field crews.
Facterra analytics
MTTR, MTBF, on-time completion, cost per work order. The data to tune the OptaPlanner solver's constraints over time.
Talk to someone who's built this before
We've integrated OptaPlanner into production maintenance operations. We can show you what that looks like.
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