The steel group will implement the system in its installations in Germany and Luxemburg.

The steel group will implement the system in its installations in Germany and Luxemburg.
The Basque company Management Arriortúa has implemented a purchase optimisation plan in the plants of Arcelor Largos Sur de Europa, saving this company 4 million euros over the last six months. The plan is still being developed, and affects Aceralia’s steel factories of Madrid, Gafare, Zaragoza, Azpeitia, Zumárraga, Lasao, Bergara, Olaberría and Bayonne.
The management system, in which the suppliers of consumable goods themselves participate, aims at reducing the acquisition costs of some materials (mainly materials for the mechanic and electric maintenance of the installations) and other general costs by % 25. The managers of the Derio firm, which belongs to the López de Arriortúa Group, point out that the plan has managed to save over 22 % in the purchase of materials such as bearings, oils and greases, welding materials, mechanical materials, electric materials and valves.
According to the same source, once the amount to be saved was set, the plan started off with the optimisation of purchases, taking advantage of the synergies of a great group (Arcelor) with a large number of plants. Consequently, the quality of supplies must at least equal the quality of the previous ones.
Secondly, the plan cut property costs by externalising warehouses and reducing their operation to a minimum. Thirdly, the system applied by Management Arriortúa carried out a critical study of the installations with the participation of the technical management, in order to avoid conflicting situations in operational capacity. Finally, the company implemented a continuous improvement plan which involved the selected suppliers who had decided to participate in the project. In fact, the number of suppliers has been reduced from 350 to 60. In return, the selected group will have long term contracts. Arcelor has hired Management Arriortúa to apply this plan to its plants in Luxembourg and Germany.