1. a) Explain the contribution the function of operations can make to an organisation strategic success. (10) b) ACME SOLUTIONS is a research and development company offering bespoke solutions in automatic control. The company is particularly keen to improve the level of service, which it gives to its customers. However, it needs to decide which aspect of its performance to improve first. It has devised a list of the most important aspects of its service and assigned scores in relation to "importance to customers" and "performance against competitors". The assigned scores on performance were based on benchmarked information, and most of the importance ratings were estimated from customer surveys. A scale 1-9 was used, where 1=very important and 1=very good performance. These scores are shown in table Q1-1 Table Q1-1 Importance Performance 1 Service quality measurements Quality of technical solutions Customer communications Quality of documentation Delivery speed 2 6 5 Delivery dependability 4 6 Delivery flexibility Specification flexibility Price 3 4 3 7 Plot an importance- performance matrix to analyse the data and discuss how the company could use the results of the analysis to decide which components of the service may be in need of improvement. What factors are likely to influence decisions on improvements? (10) 282655