| Course | MT209 Small Business Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Supplier evaluation |
| Length | About 860 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT209 Unit 7
Cheapest in March, Costliest in August: A Unit 7 Supplier Evaluation for a Screen Printer's Blank Shirts
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT209: Small Business Management
Unit 7 Supplier Evaluation
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Northfork Print and Stitch, the three distributors, their prices, fill rates and the missed order are composite and illustrative; bracketed figures stand where invoices and supplier records would supply the numbers; the sources cited are real.
Why Evaluate Suppliers Now
Northfork Print and Stitch buys almost all its blank garments from one national distributor because its prices are lowest. Last October, that distributor shipped a homecoming order short by [96] shirts in a school's maroon, and the shop could not finish the order before the game. The owner asked whether the low price was worth the risk. Kraljic (1983) argued that purchasing strategy should depend on how much an item affects profit and how risky its supply is, and that items with high supply risk deserve more than a search for the lowest price. For this shop, fall blanks in school colors are exactly that kind of item, because a short shipment cannot be fixed by printing faster.
The Three Suppliers
The first is the shop's current national distributor. A standard cotton tee costs about [$2.48]. Delivery takes two days from a warehouse out of state. Its records for the shop show that about [86] percent of August and September orders arrived complete in the colors schools order most, while spring orders arrived complete about [98] percent of the time. Payment terms are net thirty, with no minimum order.
The second is another national distributor with a regional warehouse four hours away. The same tee costs about [$2.66]. Delivery is next day. Its stated fill rate in August and September is about [97] percent, which two other print shops in the region confirmed from their own experience. Terms are net thirty, with a [$200] minimum order.
The third is a local supply house in Boise. The same tee costs about [$3.10], and orders can be picked up the same day. Its range is narrow: it carries black, white, gray and about a dozen common colors, but not most school colors. Terms are net fifteen.
Evaluation Criteria
Dickson (1966), in one of the earliest studies of vendor selection, found that purchasing agents ranked quality, delivery and performance history above price among the criteria that mattered most. For this shop, five criteria apply, weighted for the fall: fill rate in school colors at 35 percent, price at 30 percent, lead time at 15 percent, payment terms at 10 percent and minimums and returns at 10 percent.
Scored from one to five, the current distributor earns 2 on fall fill rate, 5 on price, 3 on lead time, 4 on terms and 5 on minimums, for a weighted score of about 3.6. The regional distributor earns 5, 4, 5, 4 and 4, for about 4.5. The local supply house earns 1, 1, 5, 2 and 5, for about 2.1, mainly because it cannot supply school colors at all.
The Cost of One Failure
Last October's missed homecoming order shows what an 86 percent fill rate costs. The order was for 240 shirts at about [$16] each. Because 96 shirts in maroon arrived a week late, the shop refunded [$1,536] for the missing shirts and gave a [$2,264] credit on the rest of the order to keep the school's goodwill, a total of about [$3,800]. The athletic director also moved the school's spring track order to another shop, which in past years was worth about [$4,000] in sales.
Compare that with the price difference. Buying August and September blanks, about [$55,000] at the current distributor's prices or roughly 22,000 shirts, from the regional distributor instead would cost about [$0.18] more per shirt, or about [$4,000] for the season. One missed order cost about the same, before counting the lost spring business.
Saving eighteen cents a shirt in August cost the shop a homecoming order and a track team.
Recommendation
The shop should split its purchasing by season. From the first of August to the end of October, it should buy school-color blanks from the regional distributor, where the higher fill rate protects deadlines that cannot move. For the rest of the year, and for black, white and gray all year, it should keep buying from the current distributor, whose price is lowest and whose spring fill rate is reliable. The local supply house should be kept as an emergency source for common colors, used only when a short shipment would otherwise miss a deadline.
Two cautions apply. Splitting orders means the shop may lose volume discounts at the current distributor, which the owner should ask about before August. And the regional distributor's [$200] minimum is easily met in the fall but would be awkward for small spring orders, which is one more reason to use it seasonally.
Scarborough and Cornwall (2019) advise small businesses to build relationships with more than one supplier for critical items, so that one failure does not stop production. The split plan does that while keeping most of the current price advantage.
References
Dickson, G. W. (1966). An analysis of vendor selection systems and decisions. Journal of Purchasing, 2(1), 5-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493X.1966.tb00818.x
Kraljic, P. (1983). Purchasing must become supply management. Harvard Business Review, 61(5), 109-117.
Scarborough, N. M., & Cornwall, J. R. (2019). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management (9th ed.). Pearson.
Reading the MT 209 Unit 7 instructions
The seventh unit generally asks you to evaluate suppliers for one important purchase in the business you adopted. Most prompts want two or three suppliers compared on stated criteria, such as price, quality, delivery reliability, lead time, terms and minimums, with weights that reflect what matters most to this business. Evidence can come from invoices, order confirmations, backorder notices, published price lists and conversations with other buyers. Many sections ask you to estimate the cost of a supplier failure, since price alone hides it. A recommendation should follow from the scores and may split purchasing between suppliers rather than choose one. Seasonal businesses often need seasonal weights. Note any cautions, such as lost volume discounts. Expect about four pages, usually with a scoring table in your own version, and cite purchasing sources in APA 7.
How this MT209 Unit 7 example is built
The evaluation begins with last October's short shipment of maroon shirts and frames the item with Kraljic's matrix of profit impact and supply risk. Each supplier is described with its price, delivery, fall and spring fill rates, terms and minimum. Dickson's early vendor selection study supports ranking reliability alongside price, and five weighted criteria are applied, with a margin note explaining that fall weights change the ranking. The cost of failure section adds up the refund and credit on the homecoming order, notes the lost track account, and compares that with the premium for buying fall school colors from the regional distributor. The highlighted line puts eighteen cents a shirt against the lost accounts. The recommendation splits purchasing by season and keeps the local house for emergencies, and two cautions, volume discounts and the regional minimum, close the evaluation with a second note.
MT209 Unit 7 rubric: what earns full points
Supplier evaluations are usually scored on the criteria, the evidence and the logic of the recommendation. Criteria with stated weights earn more than an unweighted list, especially when the weights reflect the business's season or risk. Each supplier should be scored on the same criteria with evidence behind each score. Pricing the missed homecoming order is where many graders award the most, since it proves the lowest unit price was not the lowest total cost. Comparing that cost with the price premium turns the evaluation into a decision. A recommendation that splits purchasing, if the evidence supports it, shows more judgment than choosing a single winner by score. Cautions such as lost discounts or minimums demonstrate that the recommendation was tested. Kraljic's matrix and Dickson's vendor study belong in the reference list, and every price and volume should match the Unit 2 profile.
Common MT209 Unit 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Supplier evaluations often fall short by comparing price only, or by listing other criteria without weighting them. Another frequent issue is reliability claims with no evidence, such as calling a supplier dependable because the owner likes the sales representative. Some writers ignore the cost of failure entirely, which makes the cheapest supplier win by default. Others recommend switching every purchase to the best scorer, losing price advantages where reliability does not matter. Seasonal differences in supplier performance are often missed. Watch for weighted scores that do not add up, since graders check the arithmetic. If your business buys a service rather than goods, the same method works with response time and quality in place of fill rate. Tell our writers the purchase and the suppliers you are comparing, and they can help set weights, gather evidence and price a failure.
Get an MT209 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Send the supplier names or types your adopted business uses, prices and delivery problems if known, along with the MT209 Unit 7 instructions and rubric. The evaluation measures reliability as a rate, prices one failure, compares every option in one table and states the annual cost of its recommendation. The first custom sample carries no fee; allow 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT209 Unit 7 questions, answered
Where can supplier data come from for a small business?
Invoices and order confirmations give prices and dates; backorder notices and the owner's memory of problems give reliability, though records beat memory. Distributors also publish price lists and shipping policies. The sample's fill rates are composite, the sort an owner could compute from a season of order confirmations, and each is labeled with its basis.
Is it normal to use more than one supplier?
Very common, and often sensible. Many small businesses keep a primary supplier for price and a secondary one for speed or backup, especially when one season carries most of the risk. The sample's split by season is a version of that. The evaluation earns its marks by showing what the split costs and what it protects against.
How is the cost of a missed order estimated?
Start with what is directly lost: refunded sales, overtime spent trying to recover, rush shipping. Then note what is harder to count, such as a customer who takes future business elsewhere, and label it as an estimate. The sample counts 3,800 dollars as firm and treats the school's spring orders as a possible further loss the owner believes occurred.
Where can I find a free MT209 Unit 7 sample paper?
The full MT209 Unit 7 supplier evaluation is on this page. It scores three blank shirt distributors on weighted criteria, prices a missed homecoming order, compares it with the cost of better reliability and splits purchasing by season, with margin notes.
Why does the sample split purchasing by season?
Because the cheapest distributor fills spring orders reliably but misses school colors in the fall. Buying fall school colors from the regional distributor protects fixed deadlines, while the rest of the year keeps the lower price.