MCD Engineering is a subcontract engineering business based in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, specialising in high-quality fabrication and finishing services for industrial, agricultural, commercial and private customers.
From one-off bespoke pieces to high-volume production parts, the business manages a varied workload that depends on clear information, accurate traceability and good visibility across its workshops.
Product naming note: MCD Engineering originally implemented Intact Vline and later upgraded to Intact Xline. Intact Xline has since been renamed GenetiQ Xline. Historical product names are retained in customer quotes and references to reflect the customer's experience at the time.
MCD Engineering first introduced Intact Vline in 2008 and gradually expanded how it used the system across the business, including developing a range of custom reports. The company later upgraded to Intact Xline, now GenetiQ Xline, to move onto a more comprehensive and modern business management platform.
Bringing accounting into the same system
For many years, MCD Engineering's accountant used Sage alongside Vline to manage VAT and tax returns.
Running the two systems side by side meant information had to be entered more than once, creating unnecessary administration.
As the company moved more of its accounting processes into Xline, Buyer Michelle Vincent saw an opportunity to simplify the way the business worked.
“I prefer Intact Xline to Sage, it’s far more user friendly. Once you learn how to do something in accounts, like adding a sales or purchase order, it’s basically the same process the whole way across the system,” said Michelle. “There's also a cost saving to be had – with Xline we only need one piece of software to run everything.”
Bringing accounting and operational processes together reduced the need to maintain separate systems and gave the team a more joined-up way to manage the business.
Improving traceability through production
For MCD Engineering, one of the biggest benefits of the system is the traceability it provides throughout production.
When a sales order is printed, the business also creates a label for each product containing information such as the associated purchase order number, sales order number, product details, quantity and finish.
These labels stay with the products as they move through production, helping the team identify and trace work throughout the process.
The business also uses Xline to create work schedule reports for each workshop. These reports are updated as production progresses, giving the team a clearer view of the status of work in progress.
Tony Armstrong, Manager at MCD Engineering, explains:
“This report is really important because it gives us full visibility of what’s happening in the workshops and lets us provide regular updates to our customers. Our biggest customer comes into the office twice a week to find out where we are with their orders, and we can always tell them exactly what they need to know.”
That visibility helps MCD Engineering answer customer questions with up-to-date information rather than relying on manual checks around the workshop.
Keeping a clear history of quotation changes
GenetiQ Xline also gives MCD Engineering a clearer audit trail throughout the quotation process.
The team can review previous versions of a quote and see changes to products, quantities or pricing, along with the reasons behind those revisions.
For a business handling both bespoke and production work, retaining that history gives the team greater transparency when reviewing customer requirements and previous decisions.
Making the system easier to use across the team
At the time of the original case study, five members of staff had been trained to use the system.
Tony highlighted how quickly new users could learn the core processes:
“It’s really easy to teach the basics of the system. We know we can train people on it very quickly and that they'll be able to go off and use their part of it straightway. It’s just really easy to use - anybody can run a report, and anybody can check a product, and that’s really appealing to us.”
That accessibility also makes it easier for employees to find information themselves rather than relying on a small number of specialist users.
Connecting operational and financial work
Having different areas of the business in one system also makes it easier for colleagues to support each other.
Tony explains:
“While Michelle is accounts-based and I’m more operational, we can still easily delve into each other’s areas and help each other out if we need to,” said Tony. “The way Intact Xline is integrated across all areas of the business, I don't think we could find another software that would be capable of that.”
For Michelle, the impact of having that connected information available across the business was even simpler to describe:
“Having Intact Xline is like having another member of staff.”
Continuing to reduce manual processes
By the time of the original case study, MCD Engineering had already moved away from many traditional paperwork-based processes and was looking at further opportunities to automate how work moved through the business.
Its plans included:
- introducing shop-floor screens so employees could update work schedule information once a job stage was complete;
- expanding reporting dashboards to include weekly capacity information;
- reducing paperwork in the delivery process by using handheld devices to capture proof of delivery.
A system at the centre of the business
For both Michelle and Tony, the strongest measure of the system's value was how embedded it had become in everyday operations.
Michelle said:
“The first thing we do in the morning is to check Intact to see what’s going on in the business. It’s all there, all the information you need at your fingertips. We’d be completely and utterly lost without it; we just couldn't function.”
Tony added:
“The running of our whole business is based around our Intact software - from ordering to accounting to production reports, everything! If we didn't have it, we’d be scuppered because Intact Xline is the heartbeat of this office.”
For MCD Engineering, GenetiQ Xline provides a connected foundation for accounting, production, reporting and day-to-day operational visibility, helping the team reduce duplicated work and keep critical business information in one place.
