About

I came to software from the shop floor.

I'm Slim Toumi, a chemical engineer who spent years commissioning and running industrial plants before moving into the software that runs them. I contract through Toumisoft, from Monastir.

Background

The short version

I trained as a chemical and process engineer at ENIG and spent my first decade in industry: commissioning a 24 MTPD biodiesel plant at Biokast, then running production, safety and ISCC certification as technical director at Tunisian Biodiesel.

That is where the software came from. I kept meeting the same problem: the plant knew things nobody could see, and the people who needed the numbers were filling in paper.

Since 2021 I have built full-stack systems for manufacturing: a SaaS platform with tax simulation and payments at IT-CAN, and at Hutchinson the internal applications that digitize production, HSE, logistics, quality and skills management.

I have stood on the line I was later asked to digitize. That is the difference. I know why an operator will not use your beautiful form, and I know what a maintenance tech actually needs at 3am.

A system the operators route around is not a system. It is paperwork with a login.

How I work

Four phases

Walk the line

Before any code, I want to see the process running and talk to the people doing it. This ends with a written summary of what I think the real problem is, and sometimes it isn't the one you arrived with.

Shape

Working prototypes rather than static mockups, put in front of the operators who will actually use them. We cut whatever nobody touches before a line of production code exists.

Build

Short cycles, deployed where you can reach them at any time. Traceability and reliability first: in a plant, a system that is wrong is worse than one that is missing.

Hand over

Documentation, end-user training, and support while your team takes ownership. I would rather you did not need me afterwards.

What I hold to

Four principles

Plain language

If a decision cannot be explained without jargon, it usually has not been thought through. That goes double when your audience is a plant manager.

Fewer parts

Every dependency, screen, and setting is something a person maintains later. In an industrial context that person may be on another shift. I add them reluctantly.

Real conditions

I test on the network the plant actually has and the devices actually on the floor, not the ones in the office.

Leave it better

A project should end with your team more capable than when it started, not more dependent on me.

Toolkit

What I reach for

Languages

Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, SQL

Frameworks

Flask, Django, React, Angular, Express

Data

SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, ETL pipelines

Industrial

MQTT, Modbus TCP/RTU, Snap7, LoRaWAN, MES integration

Infrastructure

Docker, Linux, Windows Server, Nginx, IIS, Git, Azure DevOps

Languages spoken

Arabic (native), French (native), English (full professional)

Education

ENIG, Gabès

2011–2013

Master, chemical and process engineering — École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Gabès (ENIG).

2008–2012

Engineering degree, chemical and process engineering — École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Gabès (ENIG).

2006–2008

Preparatory engineering studies — Institut Préparatoire aux Études d'Ingénieur, Monastir.

Think I'd be a fit?

I'm open to full-time roles, freelance projects, and digitalization audits. Early conversations cost nothing and usually help either way.

Get in touch →