Hi, I'm Michael. In 2013 I moved to Tianjin to help build a manufacturing plant from the ground up — one stop in two decades on the shop floor before I ever wrote code for a client. I build the way I do because of it: straightforward, honest, focused on what actually helps your business.
You don't need to become a web expert — that's my job.
I take on a small number of sites alongside the day job — evenings and a fixed scope, so a workshop isn't waiting on a sprint.
In 2013 I moved to Tianjin to help build a new plant from the ground up — empty concrete, no lines running yet, and a production team that had never worked together. We didn't have the luxury of a slow ramp-up: every process, every handover between shifts, every piece of documentation had to work the first time, in a language half the room didn't speak natively. There was no vendor to call if a translated instruction was wrong at 6 a.m. — just us, and whatever we'd actually written down. That is why I will not hand you a site your office cannot run on a Monday morning.
What I focus on in every project I take on.
In Tianjin I helped stand up a plant from nothing; back in Bockenau I grew a Kaizen program from one role into a full team, with three colleagues from Japan I couldn't have done it without. That's where the instinct for how these businesses actually run comes from — and why I build sites simple enough for your apprentice to update.
I've spent shifts teaching a new hire how to run a machine safely by lunchtime — a handover that only works while the builder is still around isn't a handover. That's the standard your site gets too.
In 2018 the plant I worked at changed hands overnight — the shop floor needed plain answers, not slides. I still talk to clients that way: what's done, what's next, and what it costs, in plain language, no jargon standing in for an answer.
Semantic, well-structured code that works on a phone in the yard, not just on a monitor in an office.
A quote that landed a day late once cost me a job — I still price everything before I pick up a tool.
A handover only one person understood once cost a shift half a day — I don't build that twice.
I've inherited sites nobody could touch after the person who built them left — mine don't end up that way.
The principles behind every decision.
"I'm data-driven. I rely on numbers rather than opinions, and I stand on principles, not positions."
I wouldn't change a machine setting without a count first. I won't change a line of your site without knowing what a call or a quote is actually worth to you.
A Metallbauer prices the job before cutting the first piece of steel — I price your site the same way: one fixed number before a line of code, not an open-ended retainer that keeps the meter running.
I write the handover doc as if I'm never coming back — logins, a plain-language guide, and no step that only makes sense if you already know how the last one worked.
Tools and technologies I work with most often.
I use AI the way I used Lean: as a tool, with a human reviewing every line.
25 programming languages so far, starting with BASIC on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K in 1983 — fourteen years before HTML.
So you know before you reach out.
Two parallel tracks — two decades in manufacturing, and web development since I was a teenager.
"Three colleagues from Japan taught me things about Kaizen no manual ever could — I couldn't have built that department without them."
Moved to the European headquarters of a Mittelstand automotive supplier in Bad Sobernheim to lead a company-wide SAP IT project — still running it today. Two decades after starting on the shop floor, this is where the instinct for how Mittelstand businesses actually operate comes from.
Built and led a dedicated Kaizen department at the plant in Bockenau, growing continuous improvement from a single role into its own team — with invaluable, hands-on support throughout from three expat colleagues from Japan. I couldn't have achieved what we did without them, and they continue to do a marvelous job.
Returned from China to Bockenau just as the company changed hands, and worked through several process-improvement roles promoting lean methods across the plant.
Moved to Tianjin and Wuqing to help build a new factory from the ground up, then advanced to production manager once it was running — overseeing day-to-day output on the ground for a plant built almost entirely from scratch.
Promoted into engineering with a clear mandate: optimize equipment and tooling across the plant in Bockenau, turning years on the shop floor into process improvements that stuck.
Took charge of a production shift at the plant in Bockenau, focused on equipment and tooling optimization — the first step from operating machines to improving how they ran.
Started on the shop floor at the plant near Bad Sobernheim — the ground-level view of how a real manufacturing business runs, day to day.
Produced as-built CAD drawings, programmed EIB building-automation and telephone systems, wrote quotes, and handled the usual correspondence — a hands-on crash course in electrical engineering.
Owned and ran my family's metalworking business in Simmertal — using CAD to plan and oversee production and installation of windows, doors, façades, and conservatories, alongside running the business itself.
Spent five semesters studying steel and metal construction at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Mittweida — left without a degree, but with an engineer's eye that shaped everything that came after.
Completed Germany's compulsory military service, the year before heading off to university.
Continued my technical education at the Fachoberschule in Bad Kreuznach, laying the groundwork for the engineering studies and manufacturing career that followed.
Trained as a Metallbauer (metalworker) at Schlosserei Reit in Hochstetten — the very first step of a career in metal and manufacturing that's now spanned more than three decades.
Self-taught web work alongside my full-time job in manufacturing — steady until 2003, mostly quiet for two decades after, and building again now: this site, with new client work on the way.
Took on an hourly job alongside my day work — building and selling PCs, putting together early websites for local clients, and keeping their networks and servers running. The real starting point of the web career that's still going today.
Wrote my first HTML page by hand in 1997, then spent six years teaching myself the web — eventually building more than 40 websites, including self-made content management systems backed by SQL databases, before manufacturing became my full-time focus.
Outside of work, you'll usually find me traveling or spending time with family.
Tell me about your business and get back a clear scope, a fixed price, and a handover your own team can run.
Get in touch