Operations Management

Your Director of Supply Chain needs help in developing forecasts. Choose one of the following three options.

1. Develop forecasts for periods 6 through 24 using moving average with 3 periods, 4 periods, and 5 periods, or…
2. Develop forecasts for periods 3 through 24 using a smoothing factor of 0.2 and 0.3, or…
3. Develop forecasts for periods 5 through 24 using weighted moving average with weights of 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1.

Guidelines:

• Calculate the MAD and MSE for all of your forecasts.
• Start MAD and MSE calculations for moving averages in period 6.
• Start MAD and MSE calculations for exponential smoothing in period 5.
• Start MAD and MSE calculations for Weighted Averages in period 5.
• Write a 1 page article describing the different forecasting tools.

To view the chart of period and actual quantity to perform your calculations, click here.

Please refer to the following multimedia course materials:

• Unit 2: Forecasting for Decision Making
• Unit 2: Forecasting Calculations