In the case study that you read, what was the forecast model that was used by the intern? What was the value of the smoothing constant that was considered by the intern when calculating the forecast? How can the optimal value of the smoothing constant be determined?

Chinese Pharmaceuticals (HK) Limited: Effective Forecasting for Optimal Inventory Management Accurate forecasts are vital to our business because they drive all of our production and distribution decisions.' Jason Kwok, general manager, Chinese Pharmaceuticals Chinese Pharmaceuticals (HK) Limited was a young and successful Hong Kong company supplying Chinese herbal medicine products to the Hong Kong market. The company's largest customer was Mannings, the leading drugstore chain in Hong Kong. While the company had expanded its product portfolio, which included several brands, its best-selling product remained Noto37, a Chinese herbal medicine used to control cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Jason Kwok, general manager of Chinese Pharmaceuticals, was very pleased with the strong sales of its marquee Noto 37 product. Those strong sales, though, were creating other challenges for the company. In the previous week, Jason had learned that Noto37 was out of stock again. Retail space in Hong Kong was precious, and retailers like Mannings could not afford to have empty shelves. If his company could not get product delivered to Mannings shortly, Mannings' purchasing manager might be forced to stock other herbal medicine products. Jason needed to review the supply chain for Noto37 and determine some ways to first improve the company's sales forecasts and then implement better inventory management practices. Chinese Pharmaceuticals (HK) Limited Chinese Pharmaceuticals followed the trajectory of many other Hong Kong companies. It began as a small, family-owned trading company in 1998, dealing primarily in Chinese herbs. As margins of trading companies continued to be squeezed and the Hong Kong government encouraged the development of higher- 'Interview by author, 18 May 2012