frePPLe vs Seiki Advanced Planning and Scheduling

frePPLe is supply-chain planning software for forecasting, inventory, production and replenishment. Its production plans account for limited material supply and resource capacity, and planners can adjust jobs in an interactive Gantt chart. Forecasting uses statistical and AI techniques, with method selection and team review and editing. Inventory planning calculates safety stocks and reorder quantities, creates replenishment orders, and supports item segmentation and tailored rules. The multilingual Community edition is a browser-based application. Integrations include REST API, CSV, Excel and direct database access; Community also includes two-way Odoo integration. Community and Enterprise provide Ubuntu Linux binaries and Docker images, while Enterprise can be installed on customer hardware. Platforms listed are API, Linux, self-hosted and web. Community users rely on DIY support through a user group; Cloud and Enterprise list professional support. The product offers a 15-day trial and a free scheme for academic use by contacting the company. Subscription pricing is based on active item-location pairs, and Cloud lists a maximum of six scenarios.

Seiki Advanced Planning and Scheduling, also called Seiki Scheduler, builds manufacturing production plans around actual capacity to balance delivery dates and workload. It schedules operations against available resources and supports real-time adjustments. An interactive graphical planning board summarizes active order loading and operation details, while built-in sequencing rules provide a baseline that planners can refine. Users can model schedule changes and compare saved snapshots before choosing a plan; running scenarios and saving snapshots for evaluation requires the optional Simulation license. Seiki EAI connects the scheduler to ERP, MRP, PLM, and other databases, with one-way or bidirectional transfer. SQL views and CSV files are described as import methods. The Scheduler can also operate without ERP, using manually entered works orders and routing templates. It supports finite-capacity scheduling, machine and labor capacity planning, and material constraints. Seiki says it can handle tens of thousands of operations, though saving changes takes longer as the database grows. It is licensed per resource, with no stated cap on resource count. Seiki AIR runs in a browser and supports self-hosted web server or Microsoft IIS deployment; Windows is also listed. Pricing is available on request.