How We Built a Custom Cable Cutting Workflow for an Electrical Retailer

A Nantes-based electrical equipment retailer selling to both consumers and professional electricians. While standard products like circuit breakers and switches follow normal picking flows, a significant portion of their business involves cable -- and cable requires cutting to customer-specified lengths before it can be shipped.

The Challenge

Cable selling is fundamentally different from standard e-commerce fulfillment. When a customer orders 10 meters of cable, they expect a single continuous 10m piece -- not ten 1m segments. The retailer had no system to manage this. Cutting was handled manually: operators had to remember which orders needed cuts, figure out which reel to cut from, and somehow track cut pieces back to their original orders. The result was predictable -- frequent wrong cuts, forgotten cuts, and cables sent to the wrong customer.

The Solution

We designed and built a complete cable cutting management system integrated directly into the myFulfillment order workflow.

Smart reel optimization: if a customer orders 10m, the system directs the operator to cut from a 15m reel rather than a 6m reel, minimizing waste and avoiding impossible cuts.

The Results

The impact was a drastic reduction in cutting errors and a full industrialization of the cutting department. Operators now receive clear cutting orders instead of working from memory. Smart reel selection minimizes waste. The barcode system ensures every cut piece is traceable back to its order. Orders flow smoothly through the cutting-to-picking pipeline without manual coordination.