Costing Engineer (Upholstery Furniture)

Job Description

1. Front-End Quoting & Feasibility Analysis:
   • Receive and analyze all incoming quotation requests for new OEM and International R&D projects.
   • Rapidly interpret customer requirements from diverse inputs, including inspiration photos, technical drawings, target price points, and functional descriptions.
   • Conduct initial feasibility assessments to determine if a concept can be manufactured within the desired cost and quality parameters.
2. Preliminary BOM & Routing Development:
   • Leverage your extensive technical knowledge to create preliminary Bill of Materials (BOMs) for new concepts, making educated assumptions about materials, hardware, and components.
   • Develop preliminary manufacturing routings, estimating the sequence of operations and labor time required for production based on product complexity.
   • Build a complete, top-level cost estimate (Material, Labor, Overhead) based on this initial technical breakdown.
3. Strategic Cost Guidance:
   • Provide quick, data-driven feedback to the Sales and R&D teams on the viability of customer requests.
   • Proactively identify key cost drivers and suggest alternative design approaches, materials, or construction methods to help meet the customer's target price.
   • Clearly articulate the technical assumptions made during the quoting process to manage expectations.
4. Cross-Functional Collaboration:
   • Work closely with Sourcing to obtain preliminary pricing for new or non-standard components.
   • Collaborate with the Design and Engineering teams to translate your preliminary BOM and routing into a formal product design.
   • Act as the technical costing expert in initial project kick-off meetings.

Job Requirement

1. Education:

- Graduated from university with a major relating to Engineering.

- Good command of English communication skill.

2. Experience:

- More than 2 years’ experience in the cost/estimating furniture field.

- Familiarity with 3D CAD software (e.g., SolidWorks) for design review.

- Knowledge of different furniture construction techniques (e.g., RTA vs. fully assembled, wood frame vs. metal frame).

- Expert user of Excel and statistical analysis software.

- Experience with ERP systems like SAP.

- Experience of presenting cost engineering information to management team.

- Experience in sofa / upholstery furniture costing is a strong advantage.

3. Knowledge of:

- Cost engineering functions, including cost estimating, cost control, and cost analysis.

4. Skills and Abilities

- A strong "can-do" attitude with the ability to make logical, defensible assumptions based on incomplete information.

- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical and financial information clearly.

- Ability to work under high pressure.

- Highly capable of identifying problems and solving problems.

- Very proactive and energetic.

- Systematic, methodical, detailed, thorough, transparent.

- Expert-level understanding of Bill of Materials (BOMs) and Manufacturing Routings. You must be able to create these from scratch based on a concept.

- Proven ability to read and interpret technical drawings and product specifications.

- Excellent Written and Spoken English.