Clyde's Chairs and Things sells custom made chairs. Yearly sales from 1983 to 2011 are provided below. After analyzing the information, answer the following questions as completely as possible:
1. Plot the yearly sales data.
2. Compute the sales forecast for 2012 using the following approaches: ?
a) naïve forecast, ?
b) a four year moving average, ?
c) a weighted 3 year average using .5 for 2011, .3 for 2010, and .2 for 2009, ?
d) exponential smoothing with alpha (smoothing constant) equal to .4 and assuming a 1984 forecast value of 20,050.
3. Which method was the most appropriate and why? Which was the least appropriate and why?