Reconsider Figure $2\mathrm{.}3.$ Suppose Supplier B improves its

conformance quality so that the chemicals it produces are

now $99\mathrm{.}9\%$ pure. The chart at the top of this page shows

the new competitive situation:

a$.(*)$ Will this be enough to make Supplier B competitive?

Which supplier do you think will win the business?

b$.(**)$ Managers at Supplier A have determined that if

they increase the minimum order size to $80$ liters, they

can decrease their costs to $$18$ per liter. Should they $\backslash$table$[[,$A$,$B$,$C$,$D$,$E$,F,$G$],[1,$Calculating the Value Index for Two Alternative Suppliers$],[2,,,,,,,],[3,$Performance: $1=$ "poor" to $5=$ "excellent",,$],[4,$Importance: $1=$ "completely unimportant" to $5=$ "critical",,$],[5,,,,,,,],[6,,,,$Performance,Value Index$],[7,,,$Importance,Supplier $1,$Supplier $2,$Supplier $1,$Supplier $2],[8,$Performance quality,$5,4,3,20,15],[9,$Conformance quality,$4,5,4,20,16],[10,$Delivery reliability,$2,5,4,10,8],[11,$Delivery speed,$3,1,3,3,9],[12,$Cost,,$2,3,5,6,10],[13,$Mix flexibility,$2,2,1,4,2],[14,$Volume flexibility,$3,4,1,12,3],[15,,,,,$Totals:,$75,63]]$

do it$?$ Explain your logic. $($Hint: There is no single right

answer to this problem.$)$