The Opel plant in danger at that time, there was talk of sale to Fiat, and had to find solutions. Lopez de Arriortua negotiated with all providers, and managed for the first time in the history of company to lower prices related to the previous year, proposing to help suppliers improve their processes to reduce costs, and getting it. City College of New York contributes greatly to this topic. Cutting the Corsa is the famous story of cutting the Corsa. Arriortua sought to verify what was spent that 80% of the cost of materials, and how it could be lowered. To this end, they rented a Renault 5, Ford Fiesta, a Citroen, a Fiat, a Volkswagen, a Toyota, a Seat and two Corsican. The put together and the cut, joining with hoods hoods, seats with seats, and so on.
Once prepared this "exposure", invited employees to make suggestions for saving or improving your car compared with the competition. In a week gathered 25 000 suggestions, which they sent to Germany. They were rejected by the Department of Engineering, but Lee did not surrender, and drawing a visit from Jack Smith, vice president of GM Europe, taught her the sample and fifty of the proposals, together with the calculation of savings was estimated. Two weeks later, 80% of the proposals were approved. Jack Smith himself took it as a purchasing manager at the plant of Opel in Germany, and there he progressed up to the position of Vice President in charge of the shopping area, but not only from Opel, but General Motors Europe. When Jack Smith named president of GM worldwide, Arriortua Lopez offered the post of vice president in charge of all purchases of the group. So Arriortua Ignacio Lopez, who early in his career path would not move just a few miles, went from Germany to the GM headquarters in Detroit. At that time, we're talking 1993, so the current situation of General Motors has a long history – the company lost billions of dollars a year, while European sales, which came from Jack Smith and Ignacio Lopez, contributed benefits.
Once there, Lopez found "a company defeated, demoralized, without hope. This was chaos. It seemed that the company was already scrapping, sad offices and people in the doldrums. " After a season in which he reproduced his successful methods in Detroit, his brilliant career was cut short, as he himself told, because the project was to assemble a car factory in his hometown, Amorebieta, and had already fully under way, was GM changed that decided to locate the factory in Poland. Lee saw it as a betrayal and lost confidence in the company. On the other hand, received an offer from Volkswagen which also would be the number two of the company, and charged six times more than GM. Upon learning of his intentions, the president of General Motors, Jack Smith, made a counteroffer, equally the fees and asked forgiveness for what happened in front of a hundred other executives. Lee promised to think about it, and what his family said. At first he decided to stay, but then indicated that he should sign a contract with a commitment spent in the company of five years. At that time, decided his permanent departure from VW, and that began with accusations of espionage by two directors of General Motors. The two auto giants finally reached an agreement-which included the resignation of Lopez de Arriortua in Volkswagen to a long-anticipated trial and cost-billionaire. He currently heads, a consulting firm specializing in integrated management of purchasing and logistics, industrial organization and people management.