Apparel Product Costing
Standardizing Complex Apparel Cost Structures Across Plants
A U.S.-based apparel manufacturer required a structured apparel product costing framework to replace five disconnected cost systems, including Excel, despite having Oracle ERP installed. Existing systems lacked the flexibility to calculate costs at the level of granularity required for style, color, size, and material combinations. As a result, leadership struggled to standardize costing processes and gain confidence in profitability insights.
The Challenge of No Cost Standardization
Oracle ERP was unable to manage complex cost calculations at the detailed SKU level, forcing reliance on manual spreadsheets and fragmented reporting processes. In addition, the organization lacked workflow controls and consistent methodologies across divisions. Limited reporting capabilities made it difficult to adapt to supply chain changes or share accurate production and costing information throughout the business.
How ImpactECS Enables Apparel Product Costing
- Calculate unique product costs based on style, color, size, material, and other user-defined attributes
- Integrate shop-floor production data with Oracle ERP for a single version of the truth
- Split standard costing into Corporate and Plant standards to accurately cost labor by location
- Drill down to SKU level for improved variance analysis
- Apply plant-specific rates and material usage calculations for accurate location costing
- Perform margin and pricing analysis by customer, program, and essential cost adders
- Maintain unlimited scenario versions to evaluate changes in volume, throughput, and raw material prices
Business Impact Across Product and Customer Profitability
- Improve visibility into granular product costing and profitability
- Standardize costing processes across manufacturing locations
- Enhance customer profitability analysis including freight, duty, brokerage, and shipping modes
- Enable rapid simulation to identify profit-generating opportunities
- Reduce dependency on spreadsheets and manual processes
With ImpactECS, the manufacturer implemented a governed apparel product costing environment designed to handle complex attribute combinations and multi-plant operations. As a result, finance and supply chain teams gained confidence in cost accuracy and strengthened decision-making across production and customer channels.
This disciplined apparel product costing framework created a scalable foundation for margin management, supply chain flexibility, and long-term profitability optimization.