Machinix: from spreadsheets and a CRM to a B2B ordering platform

Rotem Elimelech (Rotem E) designed the ordering and production-tracking side of Machinix as a freelance UX and product designer from 2022 to 2025.

Machinix is an on-demand CNC machining platform: hardware engineers and procurement teams order custom machined parts and follow them from quote to delivery.

When Rotem joined, the company ran its clients and projects on spreadsheets and a basic CRM; he planned and designed the digital flow that replaced them, from the quote through checkout to live order tracking, together with the design system and the public home page.

Everything shown in the Machinix case study shipped and customers ordered through it while he was there.

Today Rotem is a freelance product designer (UX/UI) in Tel Aviv, Israel. Machinix is the B2B and manufacturing part of his record: one person responsible for research, product definition, UX, branding and UI on a product where money, engineering files, approvals and production status all live in one order. This page tells that story in text; the case study shows the screens.

View the Machinix case study · About Rotem · Discuss a project

Relevant experience for your project

• Turning an analog process into a product. Fifteen years of quoting and order handling in spreadsheets, a CRM and email, redesigned as one digital flow instead of screen-by-screen digitizing.
• B2B ordering and procurement software. Quotes with part specifications, quantities and lead times, a checkout with a parts table and payment, and a purchase-order list with statuses: B2B ecommerce for technical goods.
• Production tracking and order management. A track-orders table with manufacturers and risk levels, a part order view with a production timeline and quality reports, one status language across quotes, orders and parts.
• Technical document workflows. CAD file uploads with a 3D model, technical feedback with waiver requests and annotated drawings, engineering advice next to the part.
• Design systems for dense data. Reusable filter menus (status, owner, customer, complexity), costing tables and forms, built as a system for the whole product.

Machinix at a glance

What Rotem found, and what he built

When Rotem joined in 2022, Machinix ran on an analog flow: client and project management in spreadsheets, a basic CRM, and quotes going back and forth by email and phone. Engineers and buyers had no price or lead time on screen, lost sight of production once an order was placed, kept CAD files, drawings, feedback and waivers in separate tools, and saw two different pictures of the same order: the buyer’s money and the engineer’s parts.

By 2025 the product covered the whole flow. A quote page with part specifications, quantities and lead times, where teammates are invited onto the quote and documents live beside the parts. A checkout with the order summary, the parts table and payment. An orders list and a track-orders table with manufacturers, risk levels and statuses from new to delivered, and a part order view with the production timeline and quality reports. An engineering layer with CAD uploads, a 3D model, technical feedback and waiver requests. A costing view that opens every parameter behind a price. A design system of filters, statuses, tables and forms carrying all of it, and the public home page that sells it.

Rotem’s role

Rotem worked side by side with the founder: the founder brought the requirements from his daily work with buyers and machine shops, the two planned each feature together, and Rotem designed it, from research and definition through UX and UI. Four sources fed the product definition: fifteen years of the company’s analog process; the founder’s client work; the spreadsheets, CRM and emails themselves, which showed the real process and its gaps; and the competing on-demand manufacturing platforms, studied for what to match and what to skip. The design system and the marketing home page are his as well.

The problem, and the constraints

Four problems, one product. Quotes for custom parts came by email and phone, with no price or lead time on screen. After ordering, engineers lost sight of production stages, risks and quality. Technical files, feedback and waivers were scattered across tools and messages. And procurement and engineering looked at the same order from two sides without ever seeing it whole.

Three constraints shaped the design. Two kinds of users share one account, hardware engineers and procurement teams, with different questions about the same part. The data is dense and technical: materials, tolerances, quantities, lead times and regional costs belong on one screen. And every part and order moves through production stages with risk levels and quality reports, so the status language had to hold everywhere.

Product decisions

Four decisions Rotem made and would defend today.

1. One connected order, one status language

The decision: Rotem kept the quote, the part-level technical details, checkout, engineering feedback and production tracking inside one connected order, with reusable filters and one status language throughout.

Why: procurement and engineering teams need the commercial state and the technical state of every part in one place, without rebuilding the story from separate tools and messages. The strongest alternative was to keep the analog flow and digitize it as it was, spreadsheet by spreadsheet, CRM screen by CRM screen; that would have kept the seams the users were already suffering from.

Tradeoff: one order that carries everything is a dense object. Filters, statuses and the same table patterns everywhere let each user find their own view of it without the product splitting in two.

Shown in the case study: Orders (the purchase-order list, the track-orders table) and Buying (the part order view with its production timeline and quality reports).

2. The quote is a workspace, not a price

The decision: the quote page carries the part specifications, quantities and lead times, the teammates invited onto it, and the part documents, before any money moves. A quotes list tracks each one from draft to ordered.

Why: in the analog flow the quote was an email thread; in the product it is where the engineer and the buyer meet the part for the first time. Putting the team and the documents on the quote makes the order that follows a continuation, not a new beginning.

Tradeoff: a richer quote takes longer to read than a price. The quotes list and its statuses keep the overview, so the detail is there when needed and out of the way when not.

Shown in the case study: Buying (the quote page, the quote members dialog, the quotes list, the checkout).

3. Costing you can open

The decision: every parameter behind a price is visible: versions and quantity options, regional costs and lead times, and a table comparing material costs.

Why: a buyer negotiating a custom part and an engineer choosing a material both need to see what moves the price. One opaque number per part would have been simpler to build and would have sent both of them back to the phone.

Tradeoff: a costing form and a comparison table are a lot of numbers. Versions and quantity options give them structure, so a change is a comparison rather than a recalculation.

Shown in the case study: Costing parameters.

4. Filters, statuses and tables as a design system

The decision: the filter menus (status, owner, customer, complexity), the status set, the tables and the forms were designed once, as a system, and used across quotes, orders, tracking and costing.

Why: with two kinds of users and many statuses, a product that invents a new pattern per screen would teach each screen separately. One system means an engineer who learned the orders table already knows the quotes list.

Tradeoff: a system is slower to start than a screen. It paid back on every screen after the first, and it is what let the public home page and the product share one visual language.

Shown in the case study: Components (the filter menus, empty and with selections applied) and Marketing (the public home page).

What shipped, and what it did

Everything in the case study shipped and customers ordered through it while Rotem was at Machinix; the spreadsheets and the CRM were retired. Two of the buyers who use it, in their own words:

“Thanks to Machinix, I receive quotes much faster than I used to. The technical feedback is very valuable for our engineers, ensuring smooth transition from design to production.” Ravit Avraham, Senior Strategic Buyer, Nanomotion, a Johnson Electric company.

“As a purchasing manager using Machinix, mechanical parts is one less thing I need to worry about. With the platform I have full visibility on my orders status and the parts quality is superb.” Eitan Hilu, Purchasing Manager, IDEA Machine Development Design and Production Ltd.

The facts on this page come from Rotem’s own account, the Machinix case study and his career timeline. The figures inside the interface screenshots are demo content, not results.

Frequently asked questions

What did Rotem Elimelech design for Machinix?

The digital ordering flow that replaced the company’s spreadsheets and CRM: the quote page and quotes list, the checkout, the orders list and track-orders table, the part order view with production timeline and quality reports, the engineering layer with CAD uploads and technical feedback, the costing view, the design system and the public home page, as a freelance UX and product designer from 2022 to 2025.

Is this case relevant to a B2B ordering, procurement or manufacturing product?

Yes. Machinix is B2B ecommerce for technical goods: custom parts quoted, ordered, produced and tracked in one place, for hardware engineers and procurement teams, with the machine shops behind every quote. Buyers report faster quotes and full visibility of order status.

Did Rotem design the design system and the dashboards himself?

Yes. The filter menus, statuses, tables and forms were designed once as a system for the whole product, and the orders and tracking tables, the costing tables and the quotes list are built on it; he designed the marketing home page as well. He worked side by side with the founder, who brought the requirements.

Is Rotem available to design a similar B2B platform?

Yes, as a freelance product designer, on a retainer or for a defined project: an ordering or procurement flow, an order-tracking dashboard, a technical document workflow, a design system, or the full product from research to UI. Availability and rates are on his profile.

Work with Rotem

For a team building a B2B ordering platform, a procurement or manufacturing tool, or any product where money, technical files, approvals and status meet in one record, Rotem brings the whole product process, research, product definition, UX, branding and UI design, and the experience of turning a fifteen-year analog process into a product its buyers prefer. Availability, rates and how he works are on his profile.

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