Question: The equation describing the sales trend of the Chemical Company is St=21.3+1.3t, where St is the sales (in millions of dollars per month) of the firm and t is time measured in months from January 1995. The firm's seasonal index of sales is:
Jan 103 May 101 Sept 121
Feb 80 June 104 Oct 101
Mar 75 July 120 Nov 75
April 103 August 139 Dec 78
A. Construct a monthly sales forecast for the firm for 2001.
B. Why would the managers of the Chemical Company want monthly sales forecasts of this kind?