Cost Accountant

Job Purpose Serve as the embedded Factory Controller for the cable manufacturing operation — safeguarding the accuracy and integrity of product costing across all plants (BOM and routing), leading variance analysis between standard and actual performance, and partnering with operations on consumption control, maintenance cost, shop-floor reporting and capital expenditure evaluation. The role is the critical link between Finance and the shop floor: converting physical production activity into financial insight that protects margin, improves yield and underpins sound capital allocation. Key Responsibilities A. Standard Costing & Bill of Materials (BOM) •Maintain and validate multi-level BOMs across the full process flow — rod and wire drawing, stranding and bunching, insulation/extrusion, laying-up, armoring and sheathing — ensuring metal content (copper / aluminium), compounds (PVC / XLPE / PE), armor wire and tape, fillers and packaging are accurately reflected at every level. •Partner with the Technical and Manufacturing teams to improve BOM accuracy, minimizing variances and strengthening the reliability of product costing. •Ensure costing master data consistently reflects current manufacturing processes and cost structures. •Embed standard scrap, wastage and process-loss factors at each BOM level and review them periodically against actual performance. •Drive the periodic and annual standard cost roll (cost estimate run), ensuring metal standards align with the agreed LME / costing-price basis and conversion costs reflect prevailing rates. •Validate new-product (NPD) costings and assess the cost impact of engineering change notes (ECNs) and BOM revisions. B. Routing & Routing-Time vs Actual-Time Variance •Evaluate and monitor routings and work-center master data — drawing lines, stranding machines, extruders, armoring and sheathing lines — including standard machine times, setup times, labour times and machine-hour rates. •Monitor and quantify the variance between standard routing time and actual production time at work-order and work-center level, translating it into a clear cost impact. •Ensure routing activities are correctly categorized across the following elements: –Machine run time –Setup time –Idle time –Rework time –Maintenance time –Downtime •Identify the root causes of time variance (line speed, downtime, changeover/setup, rework, manning) and partner with Production Engineering to keep standard times realistic and to challenge persistent unfavourable variances. C. Material Consumption Monitoring •Reconcile actual material issued and consumed against standard (BOM) consumption at work-order and product level, reporting usage and yield variances with particular focus on high-value metal. •Monitor copper and aluminium yield, process scrap and reclaim/recovery, ensuring scrap is captured, weighed and valued correctly. •Investigate abnormal consumption, over-issues, unconfirmed issues and negative inventories, driving corrective action with Stores and Production. D. Shop-Floor Reporting & Production Confirmation •Ensure timely and accurate shop-floor reporting in SAP / ERP — production confirmations, order completions, WIP movements and yield reporting. •Strengthen the discipline and accuracy of confirmations, reconciling reported production to physical output and to financial postings. •Monitor WIP ageing and open / unsettled work orders, ensuring clean and timely order settlement at period close. •Monitor compliance with production-order closing procedures across all plants, ensuring the shop-floor teams follow the defined process for timely confirmation, goods receipt, material-consumption posting and technical closure of production orders. E. Maintenance Order Analysis •Analyse maintenance orders (planned/preventive and breakdown/corrective) by work centre and equipment, tracking maintenance cost, spares consumption and external service cost. •Work closely with the Plant and Maintenance teams to challenge cost, correctly distinguish capex from revenue/repair, and ensure proper settlement of maintenance orders. •Provide cost-per-machine and cost-of-downtime insight, linking maintenance spend to OEE and to routing-time variance. F. Factory Controller — Period Close, Inventory & Margin •Support the month-end close: order settlement, WIP and variance calculation, overhead absorption, inventory valuation and COGS analysis. •Collaborate with Production and Planning to resolve issues affecting production-order settlement. •Prepare plant cost reports, variance bridges and conversion-cost analysis, clearly explaining movements against budget and standard to plant and finance leadership. •Safeguard inventory accuracy (cycle-count / physical-verification reconciliation) and the correct valuation of raw material, WIP and finished goods. G. Business Partnering & Capex Evaluation •Act as finance business partner to the Plant Manager and operations leadership, providing cost transparency and decision support. •Evaluate capex ideas originating on the shop floor — quantifying cost savings and yield, throughput and quality benefits — build the business case (payback, NPV, IRR) and develop proposals for the capital budget. •Track the benefits realisation of approved capex against the original business case. H. Time & Motion Studies •Conduct periodic time-and-motion studies across manufacturing operations to validate whether standard routing times accurately reflect actual shop-floor performance. •Identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks and productivity-improvement opportunities, recommending updates to routing standards based on study findings. I. Capacity Planning & Manufacturing Performance •Evaluate production capacity-planning activities across the plants in order to maximise profit by minimizing the costs & wastages •Evaluate machine and labour utilisation against available capacity. •Identify capacity constraints and underutilized resources. •Support management in evaluating expansion, automation and productivity-improvement opportunities. •Analyze and report on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) across manufacturing plants. Qualifications & Experience •CMA (US) / ICWA (India) / CIMA qualified, or an equivalent professional cost & management accounting qualification. •Approximately 4–7 years' cost accounting experience, preferably in cable, wire or metals manufacturing, or another process / discrete manufacturing environment. •Strong working knowledge of standard costing, product costing and variance analysis in a manufacturing environment. Technical & System Skills •SAP (CO / Product Costing / Material Ledger / PM) or equivalent ERP — strong preference. •Advanced Excel; familiarity with BI tools (e.g. Power BI) and large datasets an advantage.

Qualifications & Experience: CMA (US) / ICWA (India) / CIMA qualified, or an equivalent professional cost & management accounting qualification. Approximately 4–7 years' cost accounting experience, preferably in cable, wire or metals manufacturing, or another process / discrete manufacturing environment. Strong working knowledge of standard costing, product costing and variance analysis in a manufacturing environment. Technical & System Skills: SAP (CO / Product Costing / Material Ledger / PM) or equivalent ERP — strong preference. Advanced Excel; familiarity with BI tools (e.g. Power BI) and large datasets an advantage.

A. Standard Costing & Bill of Materials (BOM) - Maintain and validate multi-level BOMs across the full process flow, ensuring metal content, compounds, armor wire and tape, fillers and packaging are accurately reflected at every level. - Partner with Technical and Manufacturing teams to improve BOM accuracy, minimizing variances and strengthening reliability of product costing. - Ensure costing master data reflects current manufacturing processes and cost structures. - Embed standard scrap, wastage and process-loss factors at each BOM level and review them periodically against actual performance. - Drive periodic and annual standard cost roll, ensuring metal standards align with LME / costing-price basis and conversion costs reflect prevailing rates. - Validate new-product costings and assess cost impact of ECNs and BOM revisions. B. Routing & Routing-Time vs Actual-Time Variance - Evaluate routings and work-center master data, including standard machine times, setup times, labour times and machine-hour rates. - Monitor variance between standard routing time and actual production time; translate into cost impact. - Categorize routing activities into machine run time, setup time, idle time, rework time, maintenance time, downtime. - Identify root causes of time variance and partner with Production Engineering to keep standard times realistic. C. Material Consumption Monitoring - Reconcile actual material issued against standard consumption; report usage and yield variances, focusing on copper and aluminium. - Monitor yield, scrap and reclaim, ensuring scrap is tracked and valued. - Investigate abnormal consumption, over-issues, unconfirmed issues and negative inventories; drive corrective action with Stores and Production. D. Shop-Floor Reporting & Production Confirmation - Ensure timely shop-floor reporting in SAP/ERP; confirm productions, WIP movements and yield reporting. - Strengthen accuracy of confirmations and reconcile reported production to physical output and financial postings. - Monitor WIP aging and open work orders; ensure timely order settlement at period close. - Ensure adherence to production-order closing procedures. E. Maintenance Order Analysis - Analyze maintenance orders by work centre and equipment; track maintenance cost, spares and external service cost. - Challenge cost and distinguish capex from revenue/repair; ensure proper settlement of maintenance orders. - Provide cost-per-machine and cost-of-downtime insights linked to OEE and routing-time variance. F. Factory Controller — Period Close, Inventory & Margin - Support month-end close: order settlement, WIP and variance calculation, overhead absorption, inventory valuation and COGS analysis. - Collaborate to resolve issues affecting production-order settlement. - Prepare plant cost reports, variance bridges and conversion-cost analysis; explain movements to leadership. - Safeguard inventory accuracy through cycle-counts and physical verification; ensure proper valuation of raw materials, WIP and finished goods. G. Business Partnering & Capex Evaluation - Act as finance business partner to Plant Manager and operations leadership; provide cost transparency and decision support. - Evaluate capex ideas; quantify cost savings, yield, throughput and quality benefits; build business cases and proposals. - Track benefits realisation of approved capex. H. Time & Motion Studies - Conduct time-and-motion studies to validate standard routing times; identify inefficiencies and propose updates to routing standards. I. Capacity Planning & Manufacturing Performance - Evaluate capacity-planning to maximise profit; assess machine and labour utilisation; identify constraints; support expansion, automation and productivity improvements; analyze OEE across plants.