LO Costing Specialist

• Train functional teams acquire skills in root cause analysis and problem-solving techniques, cost benchmarking and standardization of costing processes.
• Study, improve and standardize LO costing processes through collaboration with LO functional managers.
• Will be the LO point person for initiating sustainable process improvements which results in improved manufacturing efficiencies resulting in more competitive costs.

• Standardize costing methodology in LO and deliver an efficient LO costing process (aligned with global processes) through developing and identifying defined processes and tools. Drive compliance & improvement of global costing policies & procedures within the LO and suppliers in the region
• Create seasonal benchmarks on standard costs & publish for the use of the product creation teams and LO merchandisers. Reduce the number of components to be negotiated with factories. Come up with tools and automation which leads costing process moving from negotiation to validation with suppliers. Create tools which reduces the overall workload of costing at LO through BA and other tools
• Understand and communicate economic trends and expected FOB cost impacts within region of responsibility, prior to beginning of development season. Understand factory wise cost structure to support price negotiations and sourcing strategy and Support product creation teams and LO merchandisers in achieving brand margin targets
• Work with global costing team on costing related projects, providing necessary regional feedback to formulate sourcing strategies, global costing policies & costing tools
• Assist and Support validation of factory information on labor costs, SAMs and usages. Maintain a database of productivity of previous seasons of carry over styles and help LO teams in better negotiation of costs through fact-based approach.

• Process improvement at factories (key suppliers) in alignment with Columbia processes. Work with factories on long term key carry over programs to efficiently and effectively manufacture product at lowest possible cost with improved quality. Establish metrics for measuring the factory performance which has a direct bearing on Columbia deliverables of cost, quality, delivery and compliance.
• Involve actively while commercializing new innovations at the factory by evaluating the process complexity, manufacturing feasibility, machinery limitations and estimation of labor content and quality. Support product and quality engineering teams to enable robust development of product which reduces quality failure and helps in efficient manufacturing of bulk.
• Work with other regional and global costing teams on continuous improvement projects to build operational excellence across supply chain.
• Negotiate best possible costs for carry over and other high-volume styles by supporting the commercialization teams or through direct negotiation with key vendors.

Columbia Sportswear