Pineapple sales at Whit's Pineapple Farm in St. Mary are shown in the left column in the table below:

MOVING AVERAGE CALCULATIONS -

PINEAPPLE SALES BY MONTH

MONTH ACTUAL PINEAPPLE SALES(1000's) FORECAST USING 3 - MTH MOVING AVERAGE ABSOLUTE DEVIATION FOR 3 - MONTH

January 10 -

February 12 -

March 13 -

April 16 11.67 4.33

May 19 13.67 5.33

June 23 16 7

July 26 19.33 6.67

August 30 22.67 7.33

September 28 26.33 1.67

October 18 28 10

November 16 25.33 9.33

December 14 20.67 6.67

JANUARY-

a.Compute 4 - and 5 - month moving averages for the time series.

b.Compute the MAD for the 4 - and 5 - month moving averages forecasts.

c.Based on the MAD error analysis, which is the preferred forecasting method?Remember that the MAD for the 3-month moving average is 6.48.

d.Use the preferred method to forecast sale of pineapples in January of the following year.

e.Use a weight of 6 for the most recent observation, 3 for the second most recent, and 2 for the third most recent to compute a 3-month weighted moving average for the time series.

f.Compute the MAD for the weighted moving average in part (e).Do you prefer this weighted moving average to the 3-month simple moving average?Remember that the MAD for the 3-month simple moving average is 6.48