production hw

Forecasting WeMotivate, Inc.

WeMotivate Inc. (WM Inc.) is a small company that conducts seminars on productivity issues for

corporate executives. WM Inc. focuses on improving the quality of work and the attitude of

workers in service organizations. The company tries to provide seminar participants with the tools

essential for dealing with hard-to-measure issues. Originally, its seminars were geared toward

hospital administration–specifically. Topics included how to motivate nursing staffs and how to

provide quality care for patients. Over the years, the demand for seminars has grown, as has the

company's client base. Clients now include insurance executives who want to improve the quality

and productivity of their claims recorders, travel agency directors who want to improve the

service of their agencies, and managers of secretarial pools who wish to improve the attitudes in

their offices.

WM Inc. has offered one seminar each season for the past nine years. Each seminar lasts for one

week and is typically held at a resort or spa. The location has varied over the years, but the

winter seminars have tended to be in Florida, the spring seminars in Chicago, the summer

seminars in the Carolinas, and the fall seminars in the northeast corridor (between Washington

and Boston).

The following table shows the number of persons attending seminars since WM Inc. began.

Quarter

Year Winter Spring Summer Fall

1 35 44 54 49

2 68 61 61 75

3 70 62 70 74

4 64 72 76 72

5 73 62 85 72

6 89 66 82 92

7 96 78 95 94

8 93 80 88 101

9 95 82 89 87

DISCUSSION QUESTION

WM Inc. is considering a major expansion program. Before committing to it, however, the

company would like to be able to forecast the size of its seminars for each season in the following

two years. WM Inc. is wondering if it should expand in all four seasons or if it should concentrate

on one. The company would like to know if the growth has been even in all four regions or not.

Find a forecasting model that best answers WM Inc.'s questions. You would need to compare

accuracy of a two forecasting methods, one of which should be Trend Projection.