Manufacturing Jobs in Mankato, MN (NOW HIRING)

Position Summary

Ameristar Manufacturing is seeking a highly analytical Manufacturing Cost Accountant / ERP Analyst to become the day-to-day owner of our manufacturing costing systems, inventory accuracy, and ERP reporting.

This position is responsible for ensuring every manufacturing order is accurately costed before it leaves our facility. Rather than simply reporting financial results after month-end, this role will proactively identify costing, inventory, and profitability issues in real time, investigate root causes, and work directly with production, engineering, purchasing, scheduling, estimating, warehouse personnel, and accounting to resolve issues before they impact profitability.

The successful candidate will become one of Ameristar's ERP system experts, developing dashboards, reports, and automated tools that provide real-time visibility into manufacturing performance and job profitability. This role requires someone who enjoys solving problems, understands manufacturing operations, and wants to make a measurable impact on the financial success of the organization.

This position offers an outstanding opportunity for someone with manufacturing cost accounting experience who is eager to expand their technical knowledge, embrace new ERP technology, and become an integral part of a growing manufacturing company.

Primary Responsibilities

Daily Job Cost Review

• Review completed and in-process manufacturing jobs throughout the day.
• Verify material, labor, outside processing, and overhead have been accurately allocated to each manufacturing order.
• Ensure jobs are financially accurate prior to closing.
• Identify jobs showing abnormal or negative margins before shipment.
• Investigate costing discrepancies and coordinate corrections with production, engineering, purchasing, scheduling, and accounting.
• Resolve costing issues before customer shipments whenever possible.
• Review completed jobs to ensure profitability aligns with estimating assumptions.
• Assist in identifying recurring costing issues and recommend long-term process improvements.

Live Manufacturing Cost Monitoring

Develop and maintain tools that provide real-time visibility into manufacturing profitability.

Responsibilities include:

• Build ERP dashboards displaying live job profitability.
• Develop exception reports identifying jobs requiring immediate attention.
• Monitor manufacturing variances throughout production instead of waiting until month-end.
• Proactively identify jobs with significant negative margins or unusual cost variances.
• Investigate issues including:
  • Incorrect labor reporting
  • Material allocation errors
  • BOM inaccuracies
  • Routing errors
  • Outside processing discrepancies
  • Inventory transaction issues
  • Missing receipts
  • Overhead allocation problems
• Work directly with operations to resolve issues before orders ship.

ERP Systems & Process Improvement

Become one of Ameristar's ERP power users.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop dashboards and KPI reporting.
• Create automated reports and exception monitoring.
• Improve visibility into manufacturing costs.
• Identify opportunities to automate accounting and operational processes.
• Develop workflows that improve costing accuracy.
• Work with ERP vendors to improve system functionality.
• Train users on ERP costing processes and best practices.
• Continually seek ways to leverage technology to simplify manufacturing accounting.

Strong computer aptitude and ERP experience are highly desirable.

Inventory Costing & Inventory Accuracy

Serve as a key resource in maintaining the integrity of Ameristar's inventory and costing system by ensuring inventory transactions accurately reflect manufacturing activity.

Responsibilities include:

• Monitor inventory valuation and investigate inventory cost discrepancies.
• Review inventory adjustments to ensure they are properly documented, approved, and accurately recorded.
• Identify and resolve inventory transaction errors involving receipts, issues, transfers, returns, and production reporting.
• Assist with cycle count programs and annual physical inventories while analyzing recurring inventory variances.
• Partner with production, purchasing, and warehouse personnel to improve inventory accuracy and transaction discipline.
• Investigate negative inventory balances, quantity discrepancies, and valuation inconsistencies within the ERP system.
• Ensure purchased materials, outside processing, and manufactured components are properly costed before being issued to production.
• Review Bills of Material (BOMs), routings, and inventory master data for costing accuracy and recommend corrections when needed.
• Analyze inventory turnover, obsolete inventory, excess inventory, and slow-moving inventory while recommending improvements.
• Develop ERP dashboards and exception reports that proactively identify inventory and costing issues before they impact production or financial reporting.
• Work closely with accounting to ensure inventory valuation accurately supports monthly financial statements while minimizing month-end adjustments.

Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Analyze manufacturing performance through detailed financial and operational analysis.

Responsibilities include:

• Analyze gross margin by customer, product family, department, and manufacturing process.
• Review labor utilization and manufacturing efficiency.
• Monitor material variances, scrap, rework, and setup efficiency.
• Analyze machine utilization and operational performance.
• Identify profitability trends and recommend improvements.
• Assist leadership in understanding manufacturing financial performance.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives that reduce manufacturing costs.

Estimating & Cost Model Support

Partner closely with estimating to maintain accurate costing assumptions.

Responsibilities include:

• Review labor rates and burden calculations.
• Assist in establishing and maintaining overhead rates.
• Maintain standard costs and machine rates.
• Review quoting assumptions for accuracy.
• Analyze historical manufacturing costs to improve future quotations.
• Assist with annual pricing reviews.
• Support continuous refinement of estimating models to reflect actual manufacturing performance.

Customer Profitability & Strategic Pricing

Provide financial analysis that supports long-term business growth.

Responsibilities include:

• Analyze profitability by customer.
• Evaluate pricing trends and customer performance.
• Assist leadership with customer segmentation.
• Support annual pricing adjustments.
• Identify customers, products, or processes requiring pricing changes.
• Provide financial analysis supporting strategic business decisions.

Production Collaboration

Work directly with production teams to improve financial awareness throughout the organization.

Responsibilities include:

• Help supervisors understand job costing.
• Explain how daily manufacturing decisions impact profitability.
• Review costing discrepancies with production personnel.
• Improve labor reporting accuracy.
• Improve inventory transaction accuracy.
• Build accountability around manufacturing cost performance.
• Foster a culture where financial awareness becomes part of daily operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Manufacturing, Business, or related field preferred.
• Manufacturing accounting, cost accounting, or manufacturing operations experience preferred.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and job costing.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong computer aptitude with advanced Excel skills.
• ERP experience strongly preferred.
• Ability to quickly learn new software systems.
• Comfortable working directly with production personnel and cross-functional teams.
• Strong communication and organizational skills.
• Continuous improvement mindset with exceptional attention to detail.

Equivalent manufacturing experience with strong ERP and analytical capabilities will also be considered.

Desired Characteristics

We are looking for someone who is:

• Curious and analytical.
• Passionate about manufacturing.
• Comfortable digging into data to solve problems.
• Process-driven and highly organized.
• Technologically savvy.
• Collaborative and approachable.
• Self-motivated with a strong sense of ownership.
• Focused on continuous improvement rather than simply maintaining the status quo.

Success in This Role

Within the first 12 months, the successful candidate will:

• Become Ameristar's subject matter expert for manufacturing costing and ERP financial reporting.
• Develop live dashboards providing real-time visibility into manufacturing profitability.
• Significantly reduce costing errors before customer shipments.
• Improve inventory accuracy and costing integrity throughout the ERP system.
• Establish proactive monitoring that identifies issues before they become month-end surprises.
• Improve estimating accuracy through better cost analysis.
• Increase leadership's confidence in job profitability and customer margin reporting.
• Help production teams better understand the financial impact of their daily decisions.
• Build scalable reporting and costing processes that support Ameristar's continued growth.