Concept explainers
A
Interpretation:Determine the forecast error for the month of April.
Concept Introduction:Forecast error indicates the percent of error in the forecasted value based on the actual outcome.
B
Interpretation:Determine the error percent for the month of July.
Concept Introduction: Forecast error indicates the percent of error in the forecasted value based on the actual outcome.
C
Interpretation: Determine the Mean Error, mean squared error, mean absolute percent error, mean absolute deviation and tracking signal in this 5-month
Concept Introduction: Using regression, we will be able to define relationship between any two variables, denoting the cause and effect. The method can also be used to forecast the future depending on the past performances.
D
Interpretation: Determine the forecast in June as per the 3 month moving average.
Concept Introduction: Forecast error indicates the percent of error in the forecasted value based on the actual outcome.
E
Interpretation: Find out the forecast based on the simple exponential smoothing for the month of August.
Concept Introduction: Forecast error indicates the percent of error in the forecasted value based on the actual outcome.
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Practical Operations Management
- Under what conditions might a firm use multiple forecasting methods?arrow_forwardThe Baker Company wants to develop a budget to predict how overhead costs vary with activity levels. Management is trying to decide whether direct labor hours (DLH) or units produced is the better measure of activity for the firm. Monthly data for the preceding 24 months appear in the file P13_40.xlsx. Use regression analysis to determine which measure, DLH or Units (or both), should be used for the budget. How would the regression equation be used to obtain the budget for the firms overhead costs?arrow_forwardThe owner of a restaurant in Bloomington, Indiana, has recorded sales data for the past 19 years. He has also recorded data on potentially relevant variables. The data are listed in the file P13_17.xlsx. a. Estimate a simple regression equation involving annual sales (the dependent variable) and the size of the population residing within 10 miles of the restaurant (the explanatory variable). Interpret R-square for this regression. b. Add another explanatory variableannual advertising expendituresto the regression equation in part a. Estimate and interpret this expanded equation. How does the R-square value for this multiple regression equation compare to that of the simple regression equation estimated in part a? Explain any difference between the two R-square values. How can you use the adjusted R-squares for a comparison of the two equations? c. Add one more explanatory variable to the multiple regression equation estimated in part b. In particular, estimate and interpret the coefficients of a multiple regression equation that includes the previous years advertising expenditure. How does the inclusion of this third explanatory variable affect the R-square, compared to the corresponding values for the equation of part b? Explain any changes in this value. What does the adjusted R-square for the new equation tell you?arrow_forward
- The file P13_42.xlsx contains monthly data on consumer revolving credit (in millions of dollars) through credit unions. a. Use these data to forecast consumer revolving credit through credit unions for the next 12 months. Do it in two ways. First, fit an exponential trend to the series. Second, use Holts method with optimized smoothing constants. b. Which of these two methods appears to provide the best forecasts? Answer by comparing their MAPE values.arrow_forwardThe file P13_29.xlsx contains monthly time series data for total U.S. retail sales of building materials (which includes retail sales of building materials, hardware and garden supply stores, and mobile home dealers). a. Is seasonality present in these data? If so, characterize the seasonality pattern. b. Use Winters method to forecast this series with smoothing constants = = 0.1 and = 0.3. Does the forecast series seem to track the seasonal pattern well? What are your forecasts for the next 12 months?arrow_forwardThe file P13_02.xlsx contains five years of monthly data on sales (number of units sold) for a particular company. The company suspects that except for random noise, its sales are growing by a constant percentage each month and will continue to do so for at least the near future. a. Explain briefly whether the plot of the series visually supports the companys suspicion. b. By what percentage are sales increasing each month? c. What is the MAPE for the forecast model in part b? In words, what does it measure? Considering its magnitude, does the model seem to be doing a good job? d. In words, how does the model make forecasts for future months? Specifically, given the forecast value for the last month in the data set, what simple arithmetic could you use to obtain forecasts for the next few months?arrow_forward
- The file P13_22.xlsx contains total monthly U.S. retail sales data. While holding out the final six months of observations for validation purposes, use the method of moving averages with a carefully chosen span to forecast U.S. retail sales in the next year. Comment on the performance of your model. What makes this time series more challenging to forecast?arrow_forwardThe file P13_28.xlsx contains monthly retail sales of U.S. liquor stores. a. Is seasonality present in these data? If so, characterize the seasonality pattern. b. Use Winters method to forecast this series with smoothing constants = = 0.1 and = 0.3. Does the forecast series seem to track the seasonal pattern well? What are your forecasts for the next 12 months?arrow_forwardDo the sales prices of houses in a given community vary systematically with their sizes (as measured in square feet)? Answer this question by estimating a simple regression equation where the sales price of the house is the dependent variable, and the size of the house is the explanatory variable. Use the sample data given in P13_06.xlsx. Interpret your estimated equation, the associated R-square value, and the associated standard error of estimate.arrow_forward
- Clinic administrator Marc Schniederjans wants you to forecastpatient demand at the clinic for week 7 by using this data. You decide to use a weighted moving average method to find this fore-cast. Your method uses four actual demand levels, with weights of 0.333 on the present period, 0.25 one period ago, 0.25 two peri-ods ago, and 0.167 three periods ago. a) What is the value of your forecast? PXb) If instead the weights were 20, 15, 15, and 10, respectively, howwould the forecast change? Explain why. c) What if the weights were 0.40, 0.30, 0.20, and 0.10, respec-tively? Now what is the forecast for week 7?arrow_forward- Sales of tablet computers at Ted Glickman's electronics store in Washington, D.C., over the past 10 weeks are shown in the table below: 6 10 Week 1 Demand 20 2 3 23 27 4 5 37 26 7 8 9 30 35 22 24 29 a) The forecast for weeks 2 through 10 using exponential smoothing with a = 0.55 and a week 1 initial forecast of 20.0 are (round your responses to two decimal places): Week 1 Demand 20 Forecast 20.0 2 3 23 27 4 37 5 26 6 30 7 35 8 22 9 24 10 29arrow_forwardThe past two years sales at ACSR Inc. were 3 million and 5 million. Their forecast team used a two-period moving average to forecast its sales this year. But the actual sales for this year were 5 million. Now, the forecast team wants to forecast its sales for next year by using exponential smoothing with alpha equals 0.6. What is the forecast using exponential smoothing with alpha = .6? 2. If we decide to use an alpha of .2 instead of .6, will we be ‘weighting the error from the previous period higher or the Forecast from the previous period higher? Explain briefly or show using math! (In this question I am asking if we change the alpha to a lower alpha, what will be the effect – what will we be ‘weighing’ as more important?)arrow_forward
- Practical Management ScienceOperations ManagementISBN:9781337406659Author:WINSTON, Wayne L.Publisher:Cengage,Contemporary MarketingMarketingISBN:9780357033777Author:Louis E. Boone, David L. KurtzPublisher:Cengage LearningMarketingMarketingISBN:9780357033791Author:Pride, William MPublisher:South Western Educational Publishing