Elec Co. assembles customized personal computers from generic parts. The company assembles computers by purchasing generic computer parts in volume at a discount from a variety of sources whenever there is a good deal. Thus, the management needs a good forecast of demand for the computers so that they will know how many parts to purchase and stock. Demand data for the last 12 months is reported in Table 2 below. Table 2. Demand data PERIOD Month 1 January 2 February 3 March 4 April 5 May 6 June 7 July 8 August 9 September 10 October 11 November December Demand 37 40 41 37 45 50 43 47 56 52 55 12 54 a. Draw a draft plot of the data. Are there any important observations that you can you make about the demand pattern or the relevance of the data? b. Use exponential smoothing with smoothing parameter a = 0.3 to compute the demand forecast for January (Period 13). Use exponential smoothing with smoothing parameter a = 0.5 to compute the demand forecast for January (Period 13). d. Which method is more suitable? Justify your answer. C