| Course | MT220 Global Business |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Global operations memo |
| Length | About 790 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT220 Unit 7
What Stays in Tacoma, Which Port, and an Igniter Before Harvest: A Unit 7 Global Operations Memo
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT220: Global Business
Unit 7 Global Operations Memo
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Cascade Drum Works, its suppliers, routes, transit times and costs are composite and illustrative; bracketed figures stand where freight quotes would supply the numbers; the sources cited are real.
Memo
To: The owner of Cascade Drum Works From: Operations analyst for the Colombia project Date: [date] Subject: Operations for the Colombian market
Question One: What to Make Where
The roaster has five main assemblies: the drum, the burner assembly, the controls, the cooling tray and the chaff collector. The drum, burner and controls depend on welding skill, calibration and testing that sit in Tacoma, and they are where quality problems would hurt Cascade's reputation most. They should stay in Tacoma.
The cooling tray and chaff collector are bulky sheet-metal parts with simple tolerances. They fill much of the crate but add little value. A sheet-metal shop in Pereira, working from Cascade's drawings and inspected by the distributor's technician, could make them for about [the same cost] as Tacoma and deliver them directly to each farm. Moving them out of the crate would shrink it by roughly [40] percent, which also lets one container hold more machines when orders grow, lowering ocean freight and making the truck trip over the mountains easier.
Ferdows (1997) argued that foreign production sites can do more than cut costs, gaining access to local skills and closeness to customers. Here the benefit is closeness: a local shop can also repair a dented tray in days rather than weeks. The risk is quality, which Cascade should manage by approving a first article and having the distributor check every tray against a short inspection sheet.
Question Two: Which Route
Two routes are realistic. The first sails from Tacoma or Seattle to Buenaventura, Colombia's main Pacific port, in about [two to three] weeks, then trucks inland to Pereira over the Andes in about [one to two] days, depending on weather and traffic on the mountain highway. The second sails from the West Coast through the Panama Canal to Cartagena on the Caribbean, in about [three to four] weeks, then trucks roughly twice as far to the coffee region.
The Pacific route is shorter and usually cheaper, about [$3,200] a crate including insurance against roughly [$3,900] for the Caribbean route, but the inland highway from Buenaventura can close for days in heavy rain, and the port has at times faced congestion and security concerns. The Caribbean route takes longer but offers more frequent sailings and an alternative if the Pacific road is closed.
Cascade should use the Pacific route as its default and keep a forwarder who can switch a shipment to Cartagena when the rainy season or a road closure threatens a delivery date. Chopra and Meindl (2019) note that a supply chain's responsiveness often depends on having a second option ready, not only on the speed of the first.
Question Three: Parts Before Harvest
Colombia's main coffee harvests fall roughly from April to June and from October to December in the coffee axis, and a grower whose roaster stops in those months loses sales. The parts most likely to fail are the igniter, thermocouples, the drum drive belt and the exhaust fan motor. Shipping any of them from Tacoma would take about [ten to fourteen] days with customs clearance.
The fix is a consignment stock of spare parts held by the distributor in Pereira: [ten] igniters, [twenty] thermocouples, [six] belts and [two] fan motors, worth about [$6,000] at cost, owned by Cascade until used. The distributor's technician would carry common parts on service visits and commit to a twenty-four-hour response during harvest. Cascade would replenish the stock monthly by air courier. Air courier shipments of small parts clear customs faster than ocean freight, and each one should carry its own invoice and certification of origin so the duty-free treatment from Unit 4 still applies. The distributor would report every part used, with the machine's serial number, so Cascade can see which components fail most often and whether a design change in Tacoma would reduce field failures.
A two-week customs wait for an igniter can cost a grower half a harvest of roasting.
Summary
Keep the drum, burner and controls in Tacoma; source the tray and chaff collector in Pereira; ship by the Pacific route with a Caribbean fallback; and hold a consignment parts stock in Pereira with a harvest-season response promise. Hill and Hult (2019) note that global operations decisions are about balancing cost, quality and responsiveness, and these choices give up a little cost to protect the last two where buyers notice them most.
References
Chopra, S., & Meindl, P. (2019). Supply chain management: Strategy, planning, and operation (7th ed.). Pearson.
Ferdows, K. (1997). Making the most of foreign factories. Harvard Business Review, 75(2), 73-88.
Hill, C. W. L., & Hult, G. T. M. (2019). International business: Competing in the global marketplace (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
MT220 Unit 7 instructions, in plain terms
The seventh unit usually asks for a memo on how a company will run its operations for a foreign market. Most prompts expect decisions on what to produce at home and abroad, how goods will move to the market and how the firm will support customers after the sale. Production choices should follow where skill, quality control and value sit, not only where costs are lowest. Logistics should name ports, transit times, the inland leg and at least one risk that could interrupt the route, with an alternative. For equipment, after-sales support often decides customer satisfaction, so spare parts and response times belong in the memo. Memo format with a heading and one section per question is common. Three pages is typical, with a supply chain text and research on foreign plants cited, with any freight figures labeled as quotes or estimates.
How the MT 220 Unit 7 example is put together
After the To and From lines, the owner sees the three questions numbered. The first section lists the five assemblies, keeps the three skill-heavy ones in Tacoma, moves the tray and chaff collector to Pereira and adds a quality check, with Ferdows on what foreign sites can offer and a margin note on splitting the machine by value and risk. The second section compares the Pacific and Caribbean routes on time, cost and risk, sets a default and a fallback, and cites Chopra and Meindl on keeping a second option. The third section sets harvest timing, lists the parts most likely to fail and builds a consignment stock with monthly replenishment and failure reporting, and the highlighted line explains the stakes. A summary, citing Hill and Hult, names the trade-off between cost, quality and responsiveness, with a second note.
MT220 Unit 7 rubric: what earns full points
Global operations memos are typically graded on whether each decision is reasoned and practical. Production choices earn credit when they follow from skill, quality and value, not from cost alone. Logistics should be specific, naming ports, transit times and inland legs, and should identify a risk with a response. After-sales support is often weighted heavily for equipment, so a concrete parts and response plan scores well. Memo format, with one section per question and a short summary, makes the document usable for an owner. Sources should support choices, such as a supply chain text on responsiveness or research on foreign factories. Figures should be labeled as quotes or estimates. Ferdows, Chopra and Meindl and Hill and Hult belong in APA 7.
MT220 Unit 7 help: mistakes that cost points
Operations memos most often lose points by recommending moving production abroad because labor is cheaper, without considering quality or skill. Another frequent issue is a logistics plan that names a port but ignores the inland trip. Some memos leave out after-sales support entirely. Others describe options without choosing one. Risks such as weather, congestion or customs delays are often missing. Watch transit times and costs, which should come from a forwarder's quote or a cited source. If your product is a service, the same questions apply to where work is done and how support reaches customers. Send the product, the destination and whatever operating questions your prompt poses, and a writer can turn them into one section each with a decision at the end.
Get an MT220 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Describe the product, where it is made now and where your Unit 7 prompt sends it, and attach the rubric. A custom memo decides what gets produced where, which route carries it and where replacement parts wait, each with the reason stated, back in 24-48h. There is no fee for a first sample, and routes are checked against current port information. 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.
More MT220 papers and BS in Business Administration samples
- MT220 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- MT220 Unit 2: Country Profile
- MT220 Unit 3: Cultural Comparison
- MT220 Unit 4: Trade Policy Brief
- MT220 Unit 5: Market Entry Analysis
- MT220 Unit 6: Currency Exposure Exercise
- MT220 Unit 8: International Staffing Plan
- MT220 Unit 9: Seminar Reflection
- MT220 Unit 10: Expansion Plan
- MT219 Unit 7: Promotion Critique
- MT217 Unit 7: Stock Valuation Exercise
- MT209 Unit 7: Supplier Evaluation
- MT207 Unit 7: Startup Cost Worksheet
MT220 Unit 7 questions, answered
Should the memo recommend moving production abroad?
Only where the reasoning supports it. Many strong memos split production, keeping steps that depend on skill or quality control at home and moving bulky or simple work closer to the buyer. State what each step needs and where that need is best met. A memo moving everything offshore on labor cost alone usually skips the analysis graders are reading for.
How much logistics detail does a global operations memo need?
Enough to show the route is real: ports, transit time, the inland leg and one risk that could interrupt it. Carrier schedules, port authority pages and freight forwarder guides are citable. A precise freight quote is rarely necessary; a sourced range with its date shows research without pretending to a certainty no forwarder would give.
Does after-sales support belong in an operations memo?
For equipment, usually yes. A machine that cannot be repaired quickly abroad damages the firm's reputation faster than a late delivery does. Say where spare parts are held, who installs them and how long a customer waits. Sections whose prompt mentions logistics tend to credit memos that follow the product past delivery and into use.
Where can I find a free MT220 Unit 7 sample paper?
The full MT220 Unit 7 global operations memo is on this page. It decides what a roaster maker builds in Tacoma and in Pereira, compares two shipping routes and sets a harvest-season spare parts plan, with margin notes.
Why move the cooling tray and chaff collector to Colombia?
They are bulky, simple sheet-metal parts that fill much of the crate but add little value. A Pereira shop can build them from the firm's drawings, shrinking the crate by about 40 percent and allowing quick local repairs.