1. Which forecasting techniques do you think Ford should have used to forecast changes in the demand, supply, and price of palladium? Time series models? Causal models? Qualitative models? Justify your answer.

2. Are time series forecast techniques such as moving aver- age and exponential smoothing models well suited to developing forecasts for multiple periods into the future? Why?What are the advantages of having computer-based forecasting packages handle the forecasting effort for a business? What are the pitfalls?

3. Explain the differences in using linear regression to develop a time series forecasting model and a causal fore- casting model.

4. If forecasting is so important, why do firms look to such approaches as CPFR as a way to reduce the need for forecasting?