Reference no: EM13860321

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) Native 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?

Year	Chair Sales (Qty.)
1983	16,688
1984	21,184
1985	25,594
1986	28,110
1987	25,311
1988	20,112
1989	14,521
1990	10,749
1991	11,343
1992	15,162
1993	15,820
1994	16,533
1995	14,449
1996	15,077
1997	15,152
1998	16,303
1999	15,457
2000	14,199
2001	13,030
2002	13,636
2003	13,037
2004	14,842
2005	14,585
2006	10,916
2007	6,928
2008	5,368
2009	5,074
2010	5,839
2011	4,889

Prepare this assignment in a Microsoft Word document.