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The Cost Accounting Center Of Excellence

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Several years ago, the company set out to create a “Cost Accounting Center of Excellence”. The initial development of the project was at the request of the Chief Financial Officer the executive sponsor. The main goals set for the team concentrated on harmonizing the ways of working for all manufacturing facilities in The United States, centralize the execution of the cost accounting function, and reduce administrative costs associated with performing the cost accounting function. The team structure included a Steering Committee comprised of the Chief Accountant, Director of Business Excellence, and a Business Group Controller (i.e. Stakeholder). The Steering Committee provided the oversight and guidance of the core team responsible for executing the vision set forth in the project charter. This structured design represented a formal group. A formal group is, by definition, formed by a manager to assist the organization to accomplish its goals [Kinicki & Fugate, p.227]. Due to the technical nature of the subject matter, the Steering Committee delegated significant latitude and a high level of autonomy to the core team in performing the tasks assigned. As a result, the team proceeded, in several respects, as a self-managed team given administrative oversight for the domain tasks [Kinicki & Fugate, p.240]. The core team consisted of cost accountants, technical accountants, IT specialists, and manufacturing personnel. This cross-functional team used the complementary skills to

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