1. How can you use the techniques outlined in this chapter to predict the daily sales of pens at Staples?
2. If you had several years of data, how would you incorporate a trend in the analysis?
3. The fi le Dinner.xls contains a model to predict daily dinner sales at a wellknown chain restaurant. Column Q of the worksheet outliers removed contains the final forecast equation.
a. Explain in words the equation used to forecast daily dinner sales.
b. Explain how the day of the week affects dinner sales.
c. Explain how the time of year affects dinner sales.
d. Explain the special factors that affect dinner sales.
e. What other data might you want to collect to improve forecast accuracy?