How John Robson Metals have gained precious time through a unified construction procurement platform

Can you give us an introduction to John Robson Metals?

John Robson Metals Ltd offer a wide range of services to complement the dismantling and demolition of substations and high-voltage equipment.

What procurement challenges did you face before working with YardLink?

John Robson Metals’ procurement is complex – it can be a reactive environment with projects scattered across the UK allowing for minimal lead time. Managing multiple suppliers for diverse equipment needs, from heavy plant to small tools, and ensuring suppliers were local to projects, posed a significant challenge for a small procurement team.

What was your approach to finding suppliers?

Where possible all of our suppliers would need to be within a specific locality of our projects, passed our rigorous vetting process, and successfully set up on our system with appropriate billing and insurance information.

Now we just have YardLink. We know their supply partners are vetted, we’re going to get the best kit for our projects, and we don’t have to open multiple supplier accounts for each project. It’s taken a lot of the hassle out of our day-to-day operations.

How did you raise and process POs before YardLink?

On any particular project we may have heavy equipment, waste management, site welfare, powered access and more. Our different suppliers would send us multiple invoices in relation to a single job that we would have to consolidate. But through the YardLink platform, we’re able to process all our bookings through the dashboard, and we receive a consolidated invoice for each project.  A unified platform has really streamlined the process, eliminated multiple invoices and eased the burden on the finance team.

How has YardLink’s platform helped you overcome your procurement challenges?

YardLink’s impact was profound – the team regained precious time. We were getting multiple quotes for each product and it had to be coordinated on a project basis, across multiple suppliers. YardLink’s platform still gives us access to the national and local suppliers we love, but through a single view.

What benefits has your company experienced as a result?

Time and convenience has been the biggest benefit for our business. This has ultimately led to improved profit margins as we are able to centralise the procurement process.

The YardLink platform has given us access to more trusted and vetted suppliers, and expanded the breadth of kit available to us.

We have a single point of contact who knows our company inside out and supports everything from initial mobilisation to finishing the site and moving away. We’ve found this so much more helpful than communicating with a conventional hire desk who aren’t familiar with our business.