PMP Practice: Determine strategy to handle change

River Reyes is managing a warehouse automation project for Apex Ridge Labs. The project is currently in month 5 of an 8-month schedule. A vendor has submitted a change request to upgrade the conveyor belt system from standard to high-speed components, which would add $45,000 to the budget but reduce installation time by 3 weeks. Before presenting this change to the Change Control Board, River needs to calculate the project's current cost performance to understand whether the project can absorb this additional cost. The project metrics are: Budget at Completion (BAC) = $680,000, Earned Value (EV) = $310,000, Actual Cost (AC) = $340,000. What is the project's Cost Performance Index (CPI), and what does it indicate about the project's ability to handle the proposed cost increase?