USE MS EXCEL TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM

A small manufacturing firm has recorded a time series of the cost per unit for the firm's leading product over the past eight years.

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Cost/unit	20	24.5	28.2	27.5	26.6	30	31	36

I) If you are not given a base value or trend, what would be the forecast for the year 10 made at the end of year 8 (=0.2, =0.4).

II) Forecast for the year 9 using a) 5-month weighted average using 0.1,0.1,0.1,0.2,0.3, with the heaviest weight applied to the recent month b) Exponential smoothing using =0.2 and forecast of 21 for year 5 c) If value was not provided in the question above, what value of would you choose?