Senior Manager
Panasonic Avionics Corporation
Total years of experience :26 years, 2 Months
in the Middle East regional office to set up Customs Compliance dept and install best practise.
Moved back to England in April 2015 and travelled back to Dubai every 6 to 8 weeks.
Key Responsibilities and Achievements
Responsible for setting up Customs Compliance department in the Middle East & Africa: This includes the following:
•Import /export compliance (Dual Use) requirements under national and international legislation and development of policies to manage dual use goods.
•Provide training for staff in the MEA region on Customs legislation and best practise principles
•Implement process controls, develop and monitor performance metrics, implement practical solutions to continuously improve compliance
•Identify customs/trade compliance gaps and take corrective action to mitigate risk
•Monitor changes in regional laws and regulations that affect activities and communicate changes to the appropriate business management teams
•Develop and implement processes to ensure compliance with Free Zone and Customs authority.
•Prepared Customs trade compliance manual covering all aspect of import/export legislation
•Implemented Trade Self-Assessment program and Trade Check list for the region and these were adopted globally as great ideas and implemented company wide.
•Additional responsibility includes oversight of Trade compliance for Oceania region from 2015
Manage and maintain Import/Export activities by continuous evaluation and improvement of workflow, processes and procedures.
•Evaluate current processes/procedures, identify weaknesses and develop solutions to fill the gaps.
•Control of IPR Applications, ensuring all processes and procedures are followed in accordance with the policy and procedures set by Customs authorities.
•Minimise cost exposure through fines & non-compliance. Implement procedures to minimize Taxes & Duties
•Proactively identify areas of compliance risk & present risk assessment & improvement plans. Provide reports to senior management as required
•Act as primary interface with Customs & regulatory agencies for any potential regulatory issues and audits related to specific transactions and processes.
•Experience in dealing with regulation on export control, export licence, EAR, ECCN, EU Dual Use and UK Strategic goods and understanding of UK Spire and US Snap-R
•Also performed risk assessment for any new country opening including setting up customs clearance procedures and KPI’s for agents/brokers.
•Providing compliance training material in all relevant areas to all relevant individuals & business functions
•Part of my responsibilities is to control all imports and exports for the company and ensure duty minimisation where appropriate, which includes coordinating inbound freight internal and external suppliers worldwide seeking cost effective importation of material in close liaison with corporate HQ
•Responsible for all regional logistics (EMEA) from the point of product leaving the warehouse to the point of customer delivery. Managing the operational and commercial agreements with 3rd party carriers who deliver products for the company.
•Managing all inbound and outbound of products from and USA, Middle East, Africa, Oceania region and distribution to the line stations.
Key Achievements
•Recruited to the company after an intensive customs audit that lasted over six months, my remit was to introduce best practice and put correct procedure in place to ensure the company is compliant. I carried out a detailed review of the operation and implemented procedures and processes. (Comment by a Senior Large Business Customs Auditor to me the paperwork/procedure that you produced did you proud- It would be nice to see that level of details applied to all business.
•Developed and set up a proper IPR records and completed drawback reclaims that resulted in claiming over £1.5 million back from Customs since joining the company.
•Also implemented an internal audit process for import /export for all customs entries completed by agents, also introduced service level agreements with selected carriers with performance monitoring.
•Provided processes and performance metrics through collaboration with 3rd party providers, and helped to improve performance from 89 % to 95 %
•Liaise with local Customs office on issues/approvals for IPR/CFSP. Managed and obtained new approval for reverting to an in-house System as changed over from Vastera to Ricardo System (SADH).
•Set up a quarterly training programme for the operational staffs on customs compliance, together with desk instructions- these helped the company to improve compliance rating with Customs.
•Implemented Customs Compliance programme with quarterly audits.
•Support programs and projects to take advantage of Free Trade Agreements (including management of certificates of origin), simplified customs procedures and other duty-savings opportunities
•Reduced duty payment from ₤1.2million to ₤100K per year by applying for valuation ruling on units imported for repair
•Further reduction of duty was achieved by reclassifying some of the products and obtained BTI; this further reduced the duty liability to ₤72K yearly.
•Implemented classification strategy & data integrity and established classification checklist and rulebook
ABB Associates was formed in November 2005 provide consultancy services to business involved in logistics, International
Trade: Services provided include process review, customs health check, also ensuring correct procedures are being used to minimise duty payment. Examples of work, completing suspension returns and drawback claims, reviewing commodity codes used, submitting substitute entries- this allowed IPR to be claimed where the goods had been incorrectly entered to
Home use.
US Multi-National specialising in Inner and Outer Nutrition.
•Operated out of 58 Countries worldwide.
Overall responsibility for the Distribution Centre and Sale Centre for UK and Ireland
Key Responsibilities
•Managed the warehousing and distribution operations, management development and motivsation of the team.
•Full responsibilities for the DC, Inventory, warehousuing, distribution order processing, shipping and to final destination.
•Planning, which involves reviewing current operations and organisational structures within the warehouse and distribution? The aim being to improve customer service.
•Managing and continually improving customer service levels, which involve implementing processes to support the highest of standards
•Managing third party service providers, freight contracts and assessing against KPI’s against service levels and cost.
•Responsible for 15 Staff
•Responsible for inventory management using the Internet based inventory control system.”Oracle”
•Review stock levels and In-transit shipments to prevent out / over stock of all products.
• Ensuring a high level of stock accuracy, in addition to ensuring goods arrived at the customer on time, in correct condition and in the correct quantity.
•Managed the after sales, distribution queries to achieve response within 24hours. This includes coaching, performance appraisal, and discipline of all direct reports
•Managed and making sure both domestics and international order are handled correctly and progress through the supply chain in a timely manner.
Key Achievements
•Reduced stocks and out of stocks whilst improving customer service levels.
•Improved Warehouse & Distribution efficiency by the use of performance targets.
•Introduced and maintained internal warehouse quality audits.
•Changed staff working hours through agreement to meet the needs of the business
•Contributed towards a 20% increase in the company freight revenue received from distributors.
•Introduced a new delivery network which in turn increased the customer service levels
•Reduced Distribution Centre expenses by a reduction of 20% over a 2 year period while maintaining productivity levels, service quality, and inventory accuracy
•Processed 250 thousand units annually while managing 270 SKU’s to supply appropriate product to over 4200 delivery locations monthly.
•Developed operating budget for Distribution Centre based on detailed forecast and managed Distribution Centre to operate effectively within the operating budget
Customs Controller Europe - Two years of my time in this role was spent in Holland setting up the new bonded
Cargo
Managed and control importation of product supply from manufacturing plants overseas to arrival at UK and other European Warehouses.
•Liaison with product development team on launch of new products and obtaining BTI on Customs commodity codes.
• Comparing different source for preference status, checking the duty rates applicable to the purchased product.
•Determining whether a tariff quota or duty suspension applies to the purchased product, as this can affect the source country chosen.
•Responsible for related operational compliance exposure in areas of customs duty, vat and tax relating to movement of goods. Minimise Customs duty paid by actively reviewing new and existing commodity codes at the same time ensuring compliance with Customs regulation across Europe.
•Managed the inbound into the third party storage and UK Distribution Centre.
•Managed the distribution to Europe North countries.
•Managed the warehouse picking and packing of orders for shipping.
•Monitor freight forwarders and third party logistics providers’ cost and performance level.
•Managed third party bonded warehouse, where the company stored over to 700 pallets.
•Control and completion of IPR returns and audit of systems and C88 completed by freight forwarders.
• of products from USA, Far East and to Europe North countries.-
•Responsible for completing Intrastat and EC sales list for 5 Herbalife entities.
•Implementation of receiving, Intrastat, shipping/importing procedures.
Key Achievements
•Implemented a new method of shipping the company’s products to distributors as a result of these I achieved a 10% reduction in the cost of shipping, at the same time improve level of service to the customers.
•Improved the delivery to distributors by re-planning and scheduling the distribution process.
•Achieved a 50% reduction in the cost of using freight forwarder's deferment account.
•Made savings in excess of £30, 000 by reclassifying some of the company’s products and obtaining BTI from Customs & Excise.
•Achieved a zero-rated VAT on some of the company’s nutritional products thus increasing the cash flow.
•Within the first six months of joining the company I achieved approved exporter status for the company.
•Prepared the company to move section of its UK distribution centre to Netherlands where the company operates its own Type E Customs warehouse.
•Project managed the procurement of licence to operate a customs warehouse in the Netherlands.
•Implementation of Langdon duty management systems into the Dutch warehouse.
•Implemented customs compliance programme to the new DC in Netherlands
•Continued to control and manage UK Operation whilst located in Netherlands for upto 80% of 1999.
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Shoreditch Comprehensive School, 6 ‘O’ Levels incl. English, Maths, Economics