Working With Engineers

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

I have a problem with some the engineers at my company.  They just want to throw their beta doohickey in a FedEx box on Friday afternoon and voila, it’s in Shenzhen Monday morning.   Try as I might, those guys still won’t follow my process for properly shipping items internationally, the painfully easy step of filling out a shipping request form.  They’re a bunch of morons and seriously, I’d tear my hair out if I had any left.  What can I do?

Disbelieving in Detroit

Dear Disbelieving,

Let’s pause to let all of the import/export compliance people reading this finishing nodding their heads in agreement.

OK, as you’re probably aware, your problem is far from uncommon.  And fear not, the Import/Export Compliance Manager, who tends to be a sunny sort, believes the problem is solvable. 

However, rather than starting with the engineers, let’s start with you.  Unless you are being sarcastic and the Import/Export Compliance Manager is missing it, it sounds like you have an almost adversarial relationship with the engineers.  Maybe they really are unyielding and you really have tried everything. 

That being said, you need to keep in the front of your mind two important things:

1. You and the engineers are on the same team.  That is, the success of each of you should lead to more success for the company as a whole. 

2. You need to fully understand their perspective in order to find a solution.

The first of those is self-explanatory so let’s dwell on the second.  One of the Import/Export Compliance Manager’s favorite psychological  concepts is the Fundamental Error of Attribution, basically the attribution of personality characteristics to someone based on their actions.  For example, was the big truck that cut you off in traffic being driven by an inconsiderate jerk?  Would you change your mind if you knew that person had a woman about to give birth in the backseat and was rushing her to the hospital? 

So let’s start with the people in Engineering.  What were they hired to do?  What are they graded on for job performance and gaining raises?  What do they really enjoy doing on the job?  You can bet none of these questions can be answered by any sentence including the word ‘shipping’.  They want to make sure their projects get done on time and that they can tinker with cool technology.  In fact, they may be dealing with difficult people themselves:  Man, those clowns in Milan should have let me know they needed the beta Liberace Bermuda Hacksaw 2.1 well before now! 

So, we have two parties on opposite sides of the spectrum, but who share a common goal: getting the item from Point A to Point B on-time, without breaking the bank and in a compliant manner.  Let’s lay out what needs to happen:

1. Product needs to be packaged properly

2. A commercial or pro forma invoice is needed to accompany the product.  This invoice needs to include import/export information such as Schedule B Number, ECCN, proper value (i.e. not $1.00!), country of origin and a proper product description.

3. A packslip

4. Shipment needs to be booked through the proper channels (preferred carrier or freight forwarder), depending on certain criteria (ex. weight)

The engineers may or may not want to be involved with #1, but they definitely want to have little to do with #s 2-4.  However, you may not have the relevant information to complete these steps and thus need their cooperation. 

How do you get that cooperation?  Meet them halfway.  This will take some work.  The Import/Export Compliance recommends, as a first step, having a meeting/chat/pow wow/etc. with all or a representative group of the engineers.  Include some of the most difficult personalities and definitely any allies.  Six is the Import/Export Compliance Manager’s preferred number, but even just one is better than none.  You want them to feed off of each other and you want the allies to help advocate your side (since they likely ‘get’ why you’re not just a jerk in asking for this info).  Briefly explain your goals of the meeting and why you want shipments to get out the door with everything in order and then ask for their feedback.  Make sure they understand that YOU understand THEM and their particular challenges. 

During this meeting, attempt to design a process that minimizes the amount of effort on both sides.  One simple example is, if you’re having them fill out a request form by hand, to put it online or in a soft copy for them to type in.  Another example is to include pre-filled fields as much as possible for people to avoid having to type in information at all.  Yet another would be to autofill other information based on certain information (ex. bringing up the Schedule B Number, ECCN and Country of Origin automatically if the item being shipped has been shipped previously and has a part number).  And yet another (the Import/Export Compliance Manager can’t help himself), make the shipment request form the invoice itself and avoid duplicate data entry and fat fingering.  See what other ideas the engineers have.

Not only does this meeting get you some great ideas of how to improve the process, the engineers should see you less as ‘that idiot in Import/Export Compliance/Logistics always asking for dopey information’ and more as the ‘person who wants to help us make sure the product gets to its destination on-time and without blowing my budget’.   Not only will they be more helpful to you with regard to shipping items, they are likely to allies keeping watch out for other goings-on that might be of interest to you (in Import/Export Compliance, as you’re aware, ignorance is NOT bliss). 

Now, perhaps you have tried all of these wonderful things and there is still no success.  This is when you take your iron hand out of the velvet glove.  Hopefully you have the power to stop shipments.  Hopefully you have a management chain above you that backs you up.  Hopefully the engineers also report into a management structure that values compliance.   A nice compact powerpoint presentation about what can go wrong with improperly-shipped items, including hopefully some real horror stories that have happened within your company, in front of the right set of eyes can do some wonderful things to get people on board.  That and shipments that won’t ship.

One last bit of information: rock the short haircut/baldness.  Studies show that short or no hair makes you look more intimidating.