The general manager of a textile company in Kenya experienced a heightened demand for facemasks on week 10. He feels that the demand for the masks is related to the rising number of COVID -19 infections announced by the ministry of health each day of the week. The manager has collected the data shown in table below

week Infections (x) Demand (y)

1 20 30

2 30 40

3 60 45

4 65 50

5 70 54

6 75 57

7 80 60

8 84 66

9 90 70

10 95 80

a)Expound three utilities for material management department on specific development (3mks)

b)Using a weight of 3 for the most recent data, 2 for the next, and 1 for the oldest, forecast demand for face masks on week 15(3mks)

c)The textile company opted to use periodic review system to manage the materials used for face masks production. The average rate of usage was 100 items per day, the review period was 2 weeks, lead time was 15days while the safety stock was 500.Compute the number of items available in the stores(4mks)

d)Determine a point estimate for face masks at week 20 of COVID-19 infections for proper planning and continuous production(5mks)