Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Computer network monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-12
2003-02-25
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Computer network monitoring
C709S218000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06526443
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the field of using connected computers to securely initiate, modify, monitor, and report complex long-duration business transactions, specifically business transactions such as international shipping.
Managing complex transactions can be a complex, paper-based, error prone process. The complexity, amount of paper, propensity for error, and associated costs can increase with the complexity of the transaction. These characteristics are especially apparent in international shipping, where complexity, time delays, and regulatory requirements can lead to significant costs.
For example, each day several thousand commercial trucks cross the U.S.-Mexico border at six major ports of entry along the U.S./Mexico border. Many carry cargo to and from the maquilas in Mexico. A maquila, or “twin plant,” typically provides inexpensive labor for the assembly of parts or subassemblies into finished goods that are then re-shipped to the U.S. for consumption. Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has increased maquila traffic at ports of entry along the southwestern U.S. border significantly since 1993. Maquila border crossings are projected to be in the thousands daily by the year 2000. Ironically, the increased border traffic has provided drug smugglers with a crowded street in which to disappear, creating a tension among US government agencies responsible for the facilitation of trade and the interdiction of drugs. The governments of the United States and Mexico currently have projects under way or planned that will expand the physical capacity of existing ports of entry. The U.S. recently opened a new port at Santa Teresa, N.Mex. Plans to increase the capacity for handling information necessary to document the increasing number of border crossings have not been made, largely because the majority of the information handling resides in the commercial sector.
A significant fraction of commercial trucks currently arrive at ports of entry with either incorrect or incomplete documentation. These trucks are summarily pulled over to a primary inspection area, and sometimes subsequently to a secondary inspection area, where they are often completely unloaded. Primary and secondary inspections take a minimum of 15 minutes and can last several hours or even days if problems are found. Delays typically cost both the transport provider and the manufacturer. Truck and driver costs can exceed $100/hour. Maquila plants are increasingly operated in just-in-time mode, so receival delays at the maquilas can result in work stoppage, idling dozens of workers and halting production lines costing thousands of dollars per minute to run. Paper documents currently carry the information needed to cross the border. Truck drivers carry the documents and present them to inspectors at the ports of entry and exit. Many factors can cause delays at the port, including drug interdiction campaigns and fugitive alerts. Proper documentation does not always prevent delays, but improper documentation is virtually certain to cause them.
The root causes of documentation errors are deeply buried in the complex preparations that precede a border crossing. The required regulatory documents for each leg of the trip are numerous and bilingual. Additional NAFTA requirements have further complicated the documentation while increasing the cross-border traffic, leading to the expansion of the import/export brokerage industry in both the US and Mexico. For example, a typical package prepared by a Mexican broker includes the original invoice; the Shipper's Export Declaration; a Spanish language invoice called the factura; an import pedimento (Mexican import/export declaration document); an English manifest and a Spanish manifesto describing the physical nature of the shipment for the trucking firms; a packing list, describing how the shipment is actually arranged on the truck; and any of several possible Mexican regulatory compliance documents. NAFTA documents must be on file certifying the firm as a maquila, and the pedimento must be registered by the firm in some manner to satisfy year-end material-balancing regulations. The driver and the vehicle must be properly licensed and certified. Further complications stem from the maquilas' ability to consolidate several invoices and facturas under a single pedimento. Shipment into the U.S. involves several additional U.S. import documents. The documents are syntactically distinct, although there is significant semantic overlap. For example, the “total shipment value” given on many of these documents is not necessarily called the same thing between any given pair of documents nor will the value necessarily be computed on the same basis. For example, valuations are in two different currencies.
Customshouse brokers assist manufacturers with preparing the documents for a given shipment and generally pay any duty assessed. Brokers also provide additional assurance to their clients by remaining up to date on the latest regulations regarding trade between the U.S. and Mexico. They are essentially brokers of specialized knowledge and information, operating between government regulators and the commercial world. Brokers prepare regulatory forms from an initial manifest that may be presented by a client in a variety of forms, including presentation in person, fax machine, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and most recently Internet email. Although segments of the process are computerized, transcription of information from paper to computer and back occurs often even in advanced brokerage houses. Fortunately both the U.S. and Mexican customs services have (separate) computerized entry systems that accept document filings by modem. Nonetheless, errors occur with great regularity and brokers maintain troubleshooters on site at the ports of entry to handle such incidents.
A successful border crossing is the result of a coordinated effort on the part of the manufacturer, the consignee, and carriers and brokers on both sides of the border.
FIGS. 1
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3
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illustrate some of the interactions and relationships among the various stakeholders. For example, a nominal southbound (U.S. to Mexico) maquila shipment involves the owner of the goods (“the firm”), the firm's U.S. shipping facility, at least one U.S. trucking company (perhaps owned by the firm), U.S. customs, a U.S. export broker (sometimes an employee of the firm), Mexican customs, a Mexican import broker (also sometimes an employee of the firm), a Mexican trucking company, and finally the maquila plant itself.
Although new port facilities are planned and expansion of old ports has begun, traffic at the border is often backed up several miles. Often the customs district maintains several alternative ports in the same area. However, drivers cannot effectively choose an alternative port prior to enqueing for two reasons: (1) the intended port of entry is declared on the paper document the driver carries and cannot be changed without resubmission to the US Customs Automated Cargo System; and (2) the driver cannot determine the traffic load (nor, therefore, estimate the delay) at the port until arrival.
Border-crossing stakeholders have noted that a frequent cause of legitimate freight being pulled over for inspection is improper or incomplete documentation. In a recent border process survey, 78% of U.S. and Mexican firms doing business across the border cited automated documentation as a priority technology, the highest percentage for any technology in the survey. See Parker and Icerman, “Stakeholder Identification of Advanced Technology Opportunities at International Ports of Entry”, Sandia National Laboratories Technical Report (1996). Stakeholders were concerned, however, that a highly-accessible electronic documentation scheme might make their proprietary information vulnerable. Commercial stakeholders were adamant that the system be decentralized; they considered a central database administered by a national government highly undesirable. The second-m
Goldsmith Steven Y.
Phillips Laurence R.
Spires Shannon V.
Sandia Corporation
Vu Viet D.
Watson Robert D.
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