Verifiering inför AEO-certifiering vid Attends Healthcare AB
Since January 1st 2008, companies have the opportunity to become certified by the new common customs system Authorized Economic Operator (AEO). This opportunity is presented so that authorities together with operators are trusted to ensure that it is the correct cargo that gets transported. Attends Healthcare AB (Attends) has decided to implement this certification. To qualify there are a number of criteria that needs to be met. The aim of this thesis is to verify if Attends can meet the required criteria. This is to create a useful basis for the audit by the Customs Board. The data collection and gap analysis carried out results in that a number of critical and less critical gaps are identified. An example of the gaps which were identified is a documented routine that deals with export declarations in the current situation. The gaps were mainly identified in the security and customs areas. After consultation with staff at Attends and the Customs Board, the decision was made that a number of routines and additions should be created to deal with the most critical gaps before the audit. With the less critical gaps, it was determined that action should take place only after the audit if the need occur. By dealing with the less critical gaps later, it should be less time consuming. This is because when the Customs Board has obtained some knowledge of the company?s routines, they will be able to give more detailed information to Attends about what needs to be fixed. A systematic approach was performed in which all processes and documents deemed relevant to the certification were provided. Categorization was used to create a better understanding of the area that belongs to the documentation. This approach resulted in a register with the purpose to simplify identification of the documents. After completed collection of data and analysis the conclusion shows that Attends Healthcare AB has a large number of routines and other related documents from the company's ISO-certifications and their operations system, Total Process Management that can be reused. This previous work will simplify the implementation of an AEO certification substantially.