Discussion Question #3 - How Can a Scatter Diagram Help?

You are the Purchasing Manager, and your department has been experiencing increased activity in recent periods as the company has grown. You have observed that the average cost per purchase order processed has been declining, but not at a constant rate. You have been given an estimate by the production manager of the number of purchase orders that will be processed next period and have been asked by the accounting department to provide within one hour an estimate of the cost to process those purchase orders. How can the scatter diagram method help you meet this deadline?