From Intake to Line: A Serverless OMS that Standardizes Apparel Workflows

Serverless Order Management for Apparel Manufacturing

Executive Summary

Our product and engineering team partnered with a global apparel manufacturer to digitize the full purchase order lifecycle—from client intake through verification to production readiness. The existing process relied on a patchwork of emails, spreadsheets, and manual data validation that varied across business units. We designed a serverless, microservices-based platform that accepts orders in customers’ preferred formats (XLS, CSV, PDF, EDI), validates and normalizes them into a canonical model, and orchestrates workflow steps all the way to factory execution. Delivered over 15 months in three phases, the platform brings auditability, reliability, and a single source of truth to merchandising and production teams.

Problem

High-volume order intake arrived in many shapes and standards, and each customer required a slightly different path to production. Manual checks, rekeying, and inconsistent handoffs created delays and errors, while operations lacked an end-to-end view of status and blockers. The organization needed a scalable, secure system that could unify variants into one controllable workflow, provide role-based access and audit trails, and integrate cleanly with downstream factory systems—without slowing teams during peak seasons.

Solution

We began with in-depth discovery across business units and factory roles to document real processes rather than idealized ones. From there, we defined a canonical data model for purchase orders and built ingestion adapters for XLS/CSV/PDF/EDI so customers could keep their existing formats. Validation rules and enrichment logic standardized data and flagged exceptions early. A workflow engine, implemented as serverless microservices on AWS Lambda with NestJS services and a PostgreSQL backbone, coordinated steps from verification to production readiness with idempotent retries and operational visibility. An Angular web portal gave merchandisers, approvers, and factory coordinators a consistent UI for reviewing exceptions, tracking SLAs, and advancing orders. Observability and audit logging were embedded throughout so that every transition is explainable and every handoff is recorded. Delivery proceeded in three phases—intake and validation, workflow orchestration, and expanded factory-facing features—with UAT at each stage to ensure the platform matched on-the-ground reality.

Outcome

The organization now runs a single, auditable path from order intake to production, regardless of customer format or business unit nuance. Manual rework is reduced, status is visible in real time, and teams resolve exceptions sooner because they see precisely where and why an order is blocked. The platform scales elastically during peak order windows and provides a foundation for future integrations, reporting, and automation without reverting to spreadsheets or email threads.

What You Can Expect Working with Dreamloop Studio

We turn complex, variable operational work into reliable software. Our teams capture how your process truly runs, define a canonical model that respects necessary variation, and ship platforms that are observable, secure, and easy to adopt. By combining serverless architecture with pragmatic UX for operations, we help merchandising and factory teams move faster—with confidence that every step is traceable and production-ready.