You are in charge of analyzing five new suppliers of an important raw material and have been given the information shown below (1 = worst, 10 = best). Management has decided that criteria 2 and 3 are equally important and that criteria 1 and 4 are each four times as important as criterion 2. No more than two new suppliers are required, but each new vendor must exceed a total score of 70 percent of the maximum total points to be considered. Rating Performance Criterion Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Vendor D Vendor E Quality of raw material 8 7 3 6 9 Environmental impact 3 8 4 7 7 Responsiveness to order changes 9 5 7 6 5 Cost of raw material 7 6 9 2 7

a. Which new vendors do you recommend?

b. Would your decision change if the criteria were considered equally important?