4.4 A check-processing center uses exponential smooth- ing to forecast the number of incoming checks each month. The number of checks received in June was 40 million, while the fore- cast was 42 million. A smoothing constant of .2 is used. a) What is the forecast for July? b) If the center received 45 million checks in July, what would be the forecast for August? c) Why might this be an inappropriate forecasting method for this situation? PX TOILU d) Compute the fa an initial fore My 5 years of matched data.) e the forecast for year 6 using exponential smoothing, tial forecast for year 1 of 3,000 miles, and a = .5. PX The monthly sales for Yazici Batteries, Inc., were as The mont .. 4.6 follows: SALES 20 21 MONTH January February March April May June July August September October November December a) Plot the monthly sales data. b) Forecast January sales using each of the following: i) Naive method. ii) A 3-month moving average. 11) A 6-month weighted average using .1, 1, 1, 2, 2, and .3, with the heaviest weights applied to the most recent months. iv) Exponential smoothing using an a = .3 and a September forecast of 18. v) A trend projection. c) With the data given, which method would allow you to forecast next March's sales? PX (MyLab Operations Management also includes a shorter (brief) version of this problem.) in the natients at Providence