Sales of stoves have been going well for the Good-Value Department Store. These sales for the past five months have been 15 18 12 17 13. Use the following methods to obtain a forecast of sales for the next month. (Use hand calculations rather than an Excel template.)
(a) The last-value method.
(b) The averaging method.
(c) The moving-average method with 3 months.
(d) If you feel that the conditions affecting sales next month will be the same as in the last five months, which of these methods do you prefer for obtaining the forecast? Why?