Sometimes the best software is the software you let run behind the scenes. This is one of those stories.
The problem
At Boogaard Textiles, orders arrived daily with customer information and print work in PDF format. Those orders had to be entered into the print program — with cut lines, so the cutting machine knew where to cut.
Only: that €100k cutting machine was barely used. Why? Because manually adding and editing cut lines took so much work it simply wasn't feasible. Instead, people cut with scissors.
An expensive machine standing idle, loose sheets of paper, and a lot of manual labour.
The solution
I built a Laravel API that automated the whole process. Incoming orders with customer data and PDF print work were processed, given cut lines, and placed into the print program paper-efficiently. With a single click everything was ready for production, complete with a barcode for tracking.
I also built a dashboard that tracked everything: which order was where, what had been done — nothing got lost. The dashboard was linked to the website, financial administration and postage — one central system for the entire chain.
The result
- Cutting machine finally in use — that €100k investment became profitable
- Permanent employee hired specifically to operate the machine
- The boss's son freed from manual cutting, editing cut lines and order management
- Workflow down from a day to 20 minutes
- Full tracking — nothing went missing anymore
What I learned from this
Technology is rarely the bottleneck. The real value is often in removing friction between systems and people. Buying an expensive machine is one thing — getting it used is another.
The best part of this project? The boss's son could finally do other work, and a machine did what it was meant to do.