Global Trade Compliance Implementation

Overview:

Companies engage in international trade – import and export – to leverage the benefits to their supply chain and organization. Companies with international operations must comply with the trade laws of all countries in which they do business. Trade laws control the movement of goods from one country to another and must be identified with internal processes aligned to provide compliance.

Highly effective companies leverage trade compliance programs to support effective supply chain processes. For US imports, the result is efficient clearance, reduced time for new sourcing opportunities, and duty savings. For US exports, aligning processes with country destination requirements creates efficiencies. This reduces time to new markets, prevents holds ups and fines during customs clearance, and reduces enforcement action risks.

This case study provides an example of how LearningLens Regulatory and Trade Compliance specialists supported the development of an effective global trade compliance program.

• Client: $12 billion annual revenue company with import and exports into over 170 countries
• Industry: Chemical products and service delivery chemical equipment
• Practice Area: Global Trade Compliance – Import, Export, and Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA)
• Target Audiences: Global trade compliance team members, Supply Chain logistics leaders and staff, import and export specialists, procurement, and research and development

Challenge:

The client needed to develop and implement a centralized trade compliance program after acquiring two large companies and several smaller companies. It was imperative for them to partner with business units to effectively support import and export activity.

LearningLens Strategy:

The LearningLens Team created an assessment and gap analysis using internal and external subject matter experts, prioritized projects and developed deliverables based on risk. The overall strategy included project and change management to verify requirements, deliverables, and provide successful implementation of solutions.

Key roles included trade compliance consultant, project and change managers, instructional designers and eLearning developers, and process improvement specialists.

Solution:

Our team of consultants developed key trade program deliverables, as well as overview and function specific training for trade practitioners. Software solution selection and implementation support was also included in the team’s efforts. Examples of deliverables include:

• Developed trade policies and comprehensive topical trade compliance manual, along with intranet site to host trade content and communicate to organization.
• Tariff Code management: software selection support and implementation project management.
• Regional trade compliance reviews: Conducted on site, remote staff and 3^rd party broker interviews in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia to identify current state, conduct gap analysis and complete required corrective actions. Created templated written procedures that are still implemented and localized during trade review.
• Created templated standard operating procedures to leverage across Divisions.
• Developed training for import and export instructor-led and web-based compliance courses.
• Project managed various projects including tariff and export control classification, sample shipments, drug precursors, denied party screening, prohibited country, technology controls, DEA reporting, trade team metrics, and others.

Consultant Testimonial:

“As the LearningLens primary trade consultant for this project, I believe LearningLens effectively supported this large multi-year program development effort with the right resources for each deliverable. Being able to bring in the right talent to augment the customers staff led to fast solution development and implementation. Our LearningLens staff kept projects going even when the customer’s staff needed to attend to internal work. We took on the specialized work, so that our customer could continue to do their work yet get the required solution in place.”