| Course | BU 106 Introduction to Business |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Operations or supply paper |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 106 Unit 5
From an Orchard in Michoacán to a Bowl in Indianapolis: Following One Avocado Through Chipotle's Supply Chain and Marking Where It Strains
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 106: Introduction to Business
Instructor Name
February 12, 2026
From an Orchard in Michoacán to a Bowl in Indianapolis: Following One Avocado Through Chipotle's Supply Chain and Marking Where It Strains
The Item and Where It Starts
The item is the avocado that becomes guacamole on a Chipotle burrito bowl. It starts as fruit on a tree, most likely in an orchard in the Mexican state of Michoacán. The United States imports most of its avocados, and in 2023, 89% of U.S. avocado imports came from Mexico, out of about 2.78 billion pounds imported that year (Corpi, 2024). Chipotle's own annual report lists avocados among the ingredients it sources outside the United States, including from Mexico, and among those whose prices move with weather, seasons and limited sources (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2026).
The Steps, in Order
1. Growing and harvest. Growers in certified orchards raise and pick the fruit while it is still hard; avocados ripen only after they are picked.
2. Packing and inspection. A packinghouse washes, sorts and packs the fruit. For avocados exported from Michoacán to the United States, inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture work in Mexico to certify orchards and packinghouses for pests before fruit can be shipped, so the inspection step happens before the fruit leaves Mexico.
3. Transport to the border. Refrigerated trucks carry the packed fruit north, mostly to crossings in Texas.
4. Import and ripening. An importer or distributor clears the fruit through customs and holds it in ripening rooms, where temperature and ethylene gas bring it to the right ripeness for its buyer.
5. Distribution. Chipotle does not run its own warehouses. It works with independently owned regional distribution centers, which buy from suppliers Chipotle selects and approves (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2026). The distributor delivers avocados, with other ingredients, to each restaurant on a regular schedule.
6. The restaurant. Crew members cut and mash avocados with the other guacamole ingredients in the restaurant, in batches through the day.
7. The customer. The guacamole is added to a bowl on the line or to a digital order at the make-line, and leaves in the customer's hands or in a delivery bag.
The Sequence in One Line
Orchard (grower) → packinghouse and U.S. inspection (packer, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors) → refrigerated truck (carrier) → border and ripening room (importer) → regional distribution center (independent distributor) → restaurant kitchen (Chipotle crew) → bowl (customer).
Where the Chain Is Most Likely to Strain
Strain point 1: one country, one state. With most imported avocados coming from Mexico and much of that from Michoacán, anything that stops shipments from one region affects nearly every U.S. buyer at once. That happened in June 2024, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture paused avocado and mango inspections in Michoacán after two of its inspectors were detained and assaulted, and the program stayed paused until safety protocols for personnel were reviewed (Corpi, 2024). Without inspections, fruit cannot be certified for export, so the pause stopped shipments at the second step, before a truck ever moved.
Strain point 2: trade policy. Chipotle's report warns that ingredients sourced outside the United States, including avocados from Mexico, could face increased tariffs, trade sanctions or taxes (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2026). A tariff raises the cost at the border step without any change in supply.
Strain point 3: a step that cannot run faster. Ripening takes days and cannot be rushed much, and ripe avocados spoil quickly. The chain cannot hold large safety stocks the way it might for rice or beans, so a disruption at the border shows up at the restaurant within days.
What a Restaurant Company Can Do About It
Chipotle says it is working to increase the number of suppliers for its ingredients to reduce reliance on one or several suppliers and to limit price swings (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2026). For avocados, that means buying from more than one country and season: Peru, Colombia and California each harvest at different times of year and can cover part of demand when Mexican supply is disrupted, although at higher cost and in smaller volumes. Longer contracts with distributors can also secure priority when supply is short. None of these removes the dependence on Mexico, which the numbers make unavoidable, but together they turn a stoppage into a price increase rather than an empty guacamole pan.
The course text describes supply chain management as coordinating every step from raw material to customer so that the product arrives when and where it is needed (Gitman et al., 2018). The avocado shows why that coordination is hardest for perishable, single-source ingredients: the chain is long, most of it is run by other companies, and the most fragile step sits in another country.
Information Flowing the Other Way
A supply chain moves goods in one direction and information in the other, and the avocado's chain depends on that return flow as much as on trucks. Each restaurant's order to its distributor is based on a forecast of how many bowls and burritos with guacamole it will sell, which depends on the day of the week, local events and digital order patterns. Distributors combine those orders and buy from importers, who in turn plan purchases from packers weeks ahead. When information moves slowly or inaccurately, the chain overreacts: restaurants that run out once tend to order extra the next time, distributors see the jump and order more still, and a small change at the counter becomes a large swing at the orchard. For a perishable item, that swing ends as waste or as a shortage.
Chipotle's scale gives it an advantage here. Because it owns every U.S. restaurant, it can see sales across the whole system and share forecasts with its approved distributors, rather than relying on thousands of independent franchise orders. The same digital ordering that shapes its marketing also produces precise, daily data about what customers are buying, which can be passed back up the chain faster than the avocados come down it.
What a Disruption Costs at the Counter
When supply tightens, the restaurant sees it first as price and then as availability. A higher purchase price for avocados raises the cost of every serving of guacamole; because Chipotle charges separately for guacamole, it can raise that price without changing the price of a bowl, which protects the core menu price that the marketing analysis identified as part of its position. If supply stops entirely for more than a few days, restaurants could run short, which costs sales and disappoints the customers most loyal to the product. Planning for the second case, with approved alternate sources ready, is what keeps it rare.
References
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (2026). Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1058090/000105809026000009/cmg-20251231.htm
Corpi, S. (2024, June 21). U.S. halts avocado imports from Mexico after inspectors caught up in violence. Texas Public Radio. https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-06-21/u-s-halts-avocado-imports-from-mexico-after-inspectors-caught-up-in-violence
Gitman, L. J., McDaniel, C., Shah, A., Reece, M., Koffel, L., Talsma, B., & Hyatt, J. C. (2018). Introduction to business. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-business
What the BU 106 Unit 5 instructions ask for
Unit 5 asks you to trace one item through a company's supply chain or operations. Expect to choose an item, describe where it starts, list each step in order with who handles it, summarize the sequence, identify strain points, discuss what the company can do, explain information flows and describe the cost of a disruption. Students often ask how to research a supply chain a company does not publish. Combine the company's annual report, government trade data and news coverage, and say where you are inferring. Name the handler at each step. Look for single points of failure, such as one source region. Remember that orders and forecasts flow back up the chain as goods flow down.
How this BU 106 Unit 5 example is built
The paper opens with the avocado's role in guacamole and its likely origin. A numbered list walks through growing, packing and inspection, trucking, border crossing, ripening, distribution and restaurant prep, each with its handler. A one-line sequence repeats the chain with arrows. The strain section describes three weak points: reliance on one source region, ripening that cannot be rushed and short shelf life once ripe. The response section cites Chipotle's stated effort to add suppliers and describes options such as other growing countries. The information section explains how restaurant orders and forecasts guide distributors and importers. The final section shows how a supply shock raises the cost of each guacamole serving and can lead to shortages.
Reading the BU 106 Unit 5 rubric
Herzing's rubric for an operations or supply paper usually covers the item and origin, the sequence of steps, handlers, strain points, company responses, information flows and effects of disruption. Identifying where the chain is most likely to break, with evidence, weighs most heavily, because the course wants students to see operations as risk as well as process. Origin points reward a specific starting place with sources. Sequence criteria look for steps in order with handlers. Strain credit goes to real examples such as an inspection pause. Response points reward options the company has stated or could take. Information flow is often credited. Corpi's report on the 2024 avocado import halt, the company's annual filing and the Gitman course text support the paper.
BU 106 Unit 5 help: mistakes that cost points
Supply papers in BU 106 Unit 5 often come up short by describing the chain in general terms without one item. Another frequent problem is leaving out who handles each step. Students often skip strain points or list them without evidence. Information flowing back up the chain is ignored. The company's own statements about suppliers are not used. Inferences are presented as facts. Disruption effects stop at the warehouse instead of reaching the customer. The sequence is out of order. Finally, mark where it could break, because graders reward a paper that shows how a problem in one orchard can change what a customer pays at the counter.
Get a BU 106 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 5 instructions and your BU 106 rubric, with the product or industry the assignment sets. We write a custom example that follows one item from input to customer, names the party at every step, marks the strain points once the chain is complete and prices the reserves. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 106 Unit 5 questions, answered
Can the paper cover a service instead of a product?
Yes where the instructions allow it, and services make a good subject if the chain is rethought rather than borrowed. What flows is capacity and information rather than material: staff scheduled, systems available, a customer moving through stages. Keep the same discipline of naming who performs each stage and where it strains, and do not describe warehouses a service business does not have.
How much detail does each step need?
Enough that somebody could tell the steps apart, which is usually a sentence or two each. Depth matters more at the points you mark as tight, where a reader needs to see why the strain is there. Where a length is set, spend it on the strain points and the reserves rather than on the routine stages every chain shares.
Where does information about a real supply chain come from?
From company reporting, industry coverage and supplier announcements, all of which say more than students expect. Annual reports discuss sourcing risk, announcements name new plants and partners, and trade publications cover disruptions. Cite what you use. Where the record runs out, say the remaining steps are a reasonable reconstruction rather than presenting an assumption as documented fact.
Where can I find a free BU 106 Unit 5 sample paper?
The full BU 106 Unit 5 operations or supply paper is free on this page, one avocado traced from Mexico to a Chipotle bowl with strain points marked. A supply paper on another item is available on request.
What are the steps in a food supply chain?
Typically growing, harvest, packing and inspection, transport, import, storage or ripening, distribution and preparation at the restaurant, with orders flowing back up. This sample traces each for one avocado.