People often ask us why we built Avstarna. Fair question. There are plenty of software companies already. So here is the honest story, from the beginning.

It started in one factory

We did not start with a big plan or a fancy pitch. We started by working with one manufacturer, a small food business that makes snacks.

When we first walked in, a lot of the work was on paper. Batches were written down by hand. Orders were typed over from one place to another. Stock lived in a sheet that was never quite right. And every time the NVWA could knock on the door, someone had to hope the right page was in the right folder.

They had tried a basic digital tool before. It helped a bit, but the pieces did not talk to each other. The big systems for manufacturers were an option too, but they cost a lot and come with a hundred things a small factory never uses.

We sat next to the people doing the work

So we did something simple. We worked next to the team and watched how a normal day goes. Where do people lose time? Where do mistakes happen? What do they do twice because the system does not know what the other system knows?

Then we built the smallest thing that fixed one problem. Order preparation with labels and batch tracing was one of the first. The team used it, told us what was wrong, and we changed it. Sometimes within days. That loop of building, trying and listening is still how we work today.

What we learned

• People on the floor do not want more software. They want less typing and fewer things to remember.
• Everything is connected. An order leads to picking, picking leads to stock, stock leads to an invoice. If those steps live in separate tools, someone has to carry the information between them by hand.
• A system only works if the whole team can use it, not just the one person who understands computers.
• Small manufacturers need the same quality as big ones, without the big price tag.

From one factory to many

Over time, we realised that these challenges weren’t unique to one manufacturer. Other food manufacturers told us the same things: too much paper, too many sheets, too much time spent on administration instead of making good food.

That is when we decided to turn what we built into a simple and solid system that other manufacturers can use as well. Simple, so your team can learn it quickly. Solid, so you can count on it every single day.

Food manufacturers first

We are starting with food manufacturers. That is the world we know best, and it is a world with a lot of rules around traceability, allergens and product information. If a system holds up there, it can hold up almost anywhere.

Later we want to help other kinds of manufacturers too. But we would rather do one group well than promise everything to everybody. So for now, food comes first.

Where we are today

Avstarna now runs a real production day: orders, stock, picking, delivery and invoices, in one flow. It is still growing, and we still build it together with our customers. We think that is the only honest way to make something useful.

If you run a food business and some of this sounds familiar, we would love to talk. No big pitch. Just a conversation about your day and where the time goes.

Thank you for reading. In our next post we look at how Avstarna can free up as much time as two employees, and what is on our roadmap.