The manager of the health clinic would also like to use exponential smoothing to forecast demand for emergency services in the facility. However, she is not sure whether to use a high or low value of a. To make her decision, she would like to compare the forecast accuracy of a high and low a on historical data. She has decided to use an a = 0.6 for the high value and a = 0.2 for the low value.

For both alpha values, enter exponential smoothing forecasts for weeks 2-6, and calculate the MAD for each alpha value. (Round answers to 2 decimal place, e.g. 15.25.)

Initatilize the computations using the nave method

Week Demand (in patients serviced)

1 413

2 299

3 335

4 447

5 468

6 388