Question

​Bradley's Copiers sells and repairs photocopy machines. The manager needs weekly forecasts of service calls so that he can schedule service personnel. Use the actual demand in the first period for the forecast for the first week so error measurement begins in the second week. The manager uses exponential smoothing with ​= . Forecast the number of calls for week​ 6, which is next week. Week Actual Service Calls 1 2 3 4 5 The forecast for week 6 is nothing service calls. ​(Enter your response rounded to two decimal​ places.)

Answer 1

The question is incomplete. The complete question is :

​Bradley's Copiers sells and repairs photocopy machines. The manager needs weekly forecasts of service calls so that he can schedule service personnel. Use the actual demand in the first period for the forecast for the first week so error measurement begins in the second week. The manager uses exponential smoothing with α ​= 0.1 . Forecast the number of calls for week​ 6, which is next week. Week Actual Service Calls 1 2 3 4 5 The forecast for week 6 is ___ service calls. ​(Enter your response rounded to two decimal​ places.)

Solution :

It is given that :

The manager of Bradley's Copiers needs weekly forecast of the service calls so that the manager can schedule service personnel.

Using the $\text{actual demand}$ for the 1st $\text{period for the forecast}$ for the 1st week so as the error measurement begins in the second week.

The exponential soothing, α ​= 0.1

Week       Actual service calls     Forecast

1                    28                                 28

2                   34                             (28 + 0.1 x (28-28))  = 28

3.                  38                             (28 + 0.1 x (34-28))  = 28.60

4.                  27                             (28.60 + 0.1 x (38-28.60))  = 29.54

5.                  25                             (29.54 + 0.1 x (27-29.54))  = 29.29

6                                                    (29.29 + 0.1 x (25-29.29))  = 28.86

Therefore, the forecast for the week 6 = 28.86