Mary Lindsey has recently agreed to leave her upper-level management job at a major paper manufacturing firm and return to her hometown to take over the family machine-products business. The U.S. machine-products industry had a strong position of world dominance until recently, when it was devastated by foreign competition, particularly from Germany and Japan. Among the many problems facing the American industry is that it is made up of many small firms that must compete with foreign industrial giants.
Wagner Machine Works’ quarterly sales (in millions of dollars) for the past 15 years are as follows:

Required Tasks:
1. Identify the central issue in the case.
2. Plot the quarterly sales for the past 15 years for Wagner Machine Works.
3. Identify any patterns that are evident in the quarterly sales data.
4. If a seasonal pattern is identified, estimate quarterly seasonal factors.
5. Deseasonalize the data using the quarterly seasonal factors developed.
6. Run a regression model on the deseasonalized data using the time period as the independent variable.
7. Develop a seasonally adjusted forecast for the next three years.
8. Prepare a report that includes graphs and analysis.