Consolidated Procurement of Steel and Aluminium Delivers 15% Savings and Reduced Admin Workload

Our client is a manufacturer of high-end windows and doors made from aluminium and steel. They produce a wide range of custom designs and one-off projects for architects and builders.

The bespoke nature of their business meant they were placing multiple orders every week for small quantities of metals. Timelines were usually tight and the ordering process was very reactive and last minute. This created many challenges for the business:

• High prices due to small, fragmented volumes spread across multiple suppliers
• High delivery cost due to multiple small orders all incurring a flat delivery fee
• Significant amount of admin time and effort required to source items, place orders, chase deliveries and manage accounts payable 

Fulcrum were able to transform our client’s procurement and deliver significant savings.  We did this by:

• Reviewing 12 months’ worth of purchases and identifying common higher volume items that could be purchased as stock items at lower rates
• Leveraging the buying power of the Fulcrum group to reduce the purchasing cost of one-off items – sometimes by as much as 30%
• Negotiating a lower delivery fee
• Acting as a single point of purchasing for all metals orders, which reduced admin workload by more than 70%

Overall, we were able to save our client close to 15% on their metals costs and reduce admin workload by 70%, while improving lead times and availability of key materials.  This allowed them to focus on running their core business, instead of spending time chasing suppliers to find products and get quotes.