1. Briefly discuss the differences and the relationship between forecasting, planning and goal/objective setting. 2. Nat Silver reviewed a large number of professional forecasts. He found that less than 50% of the future values fell within the forecasted 95% confidence intervals. Why is this? 3. You are on the staff of the District Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region of a major company. Over the last year, working with the District Manager and his sales managers, you've developed a time-series forecasting system for the District. Previously, sales had been forecast based on the sales managers' judgment. Your system has greatly improved forecasting. The Corporate Vice President of Sales asks you to implement a similar system in the other Districts. How do you response to the Vice President? 4. You are doing a monthly production forecast for a manufacturer using classical decomposition and exponential smoothing. The historical production data shows three consecutive months with zero production. Checking with management you find the data is correct; the plant was closed those months due to a labor dispute. Must you adjust for these three months? (You may adjust either the data or the forecast model. The question is not how you should adjust, but, given that the data is correct, should you adjust.) If you said you should adjust, what would the consequences be for your forecast if you had not adjusted? you said you should not adjust, what would the consequences be for your forecast if you had adjusted? 5. You are creating a forecasting system for monthly demand of parts. A number of the part numbers have intermittent demand, that is, no demand most months and significant demand in those months where there is a demand. Both the quantity of the demand and the time between months with demand appear random. What is the best approach for forecasting these intermittent demand parts