A company decides to automate a process that will require installing a machine that costs BD8,000 and is expected to save BD2,500 per year. If the economic life of the machine is 10 years, at which time it has a salvage value of BD2,000, and if the MARR is 15%, is it a good decision to buy the machine?

Bell Greenhouses has estimated its monthly demand for potting soil to be the following: N=400+4X where N=monthlydemandforbagsofpottingsoil X=timeperiodsinmonths(March2006=0) Assume this trend factor is expected to remain stable in the foreseeable future. The following table contains the monthly seasonal adjustment factors, which have been estimated using actual sales data from the past five years: Forecast Bell Greenhouses demand for potting soil in March, June, August, and December 2007. If the following table shows the forecasted and actual potting soil sales by Bell Greenhouses for April in five different years, determine the seasonal adjustment factor to be used in making an April 2008 forecast.

Plot the logarithm of arrivals for each transportation mode against time, all on the same graph. Which now appears to be growing the fastest?

The Questor Corporation has experienced the following sales pattern over a 10-year period: Compute the equation of a trend line (similar to Equation 5.4) for these sales data to forecast sales for the next year. (Let 2004=0,2005=1, etc., for the time variable.) What does this equation forecast for sales in the year 2014? Use a first-order exponential smoothing model with a w of 0.9 to forecast sales for the year 2014.

What is deflation?

If a government gains from unexpected inflation when it borrows, why would it choose to offer indexed bands?

Logarithms are especially useful for comparing series with two divergent scales since 10 percent growth always looks the same, regardless of the starting level. When absolute levels matter, the raw data are more appropriate, but when growth rates are whats important, log scales are better.

A firm experienced the demand shown in the following table. *Unkown future value to be forecast Fill in the table by preparing forecasts based on a five-year moving average, a three-year moving average, and exponential smoothing (with a w=0.9 and a w=0.3). Note The exponential smoothing forecasts may be begun by assuming Y t+1=Yt. Using the forecasts from 2005 through 2009, compare the accuracy of each of the forecasting methods based on the RMSE criterion. Which forecast would you have used for 2010? Why?

Savings-Mart (a chain of discount department stores) sells patio and lawn furniture. Sales are seasonal, with higher sales during the spring and summer quarters and lower sales during the fall and winter quarters. The company developed the following quarterly sales forecasting model: Y t=8.25+0.125t2.75D1t+3.50D3t where Y t=predictedsales(million)inquartert 8.25=quarterlysales(million)whent=0 t=timeperiod(quarter)wherethefourthquarterof2002=0,firstquarterof2003=1,secondquarterof2003=2,... D1t={1forfirst-quarterobservations0otherwiseD2t={1forsecond-quarterobservations0otherwiseD3t={1forthird-quarterobservations0otherwise Forecast Savings-Marts sales of patio and lawn furniture for each quarter of 2010.