2. Mr. McNeely currently batches orders for processing under the manual order management system. The orders are batched for daily processing. If Mr. McNeely opts to implement a web-based solution, might this affect his current means of order processing? If so, how? 3.3. Innovative Technologies Inc. has hired you as a sales representative. You have been asked to call on Fast Stop, a small convenience store chain with five locations in your region. What benefits of UPC and bar coding applications might you illustrate to encourage Fast Stop to utilize these technologies to track sales at its retail outlets? 5. Ms. Kathleen Boyd, director of logistics for the Scenic Calendar Company, wishes to evaluate two methods of time series forecasting. She has collected quarterly calendar sales data from the years 2015 and 2016. a. Use the moving averages technique to find forecasted sales for the third quarter of 2016 based on actual sales from the previous three quarters. b. Use simple exponential smoothing to forecast each quarter's sales in 2016, given that Ms. Boyd qualitatively forecasted 900 calendars for quarter 4, 2015. Ms. Boyd has assigned an alpha factor of .1 for time series sensitivity. c. Repeat the simple exponential smoothing problem above (part b) with Ms. Boyd employing an alpha factor of .2. d. How well do the moving averages and simple exponential smoothing techniques seem to work in Ms. Boyd's situation? In what ways do the techniques appear to fail? 6. By improving his forecast methodology and shortening forecast horizons, Mr. Gregory anticipates cutting the error level down to 10 percent. With improved forecasting, Muscle Man's DC managers have indicated that they feel comfortable with lower inventory levels. Mr. Gregory anticipates monthly inventory carrying cost reductions of 35 percent. a. If the forecast system improvement will cost $1,500 more per month than the old system, should Mr. Gregory implement the change? b. Why might Muscle Man's customers encourage the firm to improve its forecasting capabilities? 7. Mr. Stan Busfield, distribution center manager of Hogan Kitchenwares, must determine when to resupply his stock of spatulas. The DC experiences a daily demand of 500 spatulas. The average length of the performance cycle for spatulas is 21 days. Mr. Busfield requires that 750 spatulas be retained as safety stock to deal with demand uncertainty. What is the reorder point for spatulas