Question: The manager of the Petroco Service Station wants to forecast the demand for unleaded gasoline next month so that the proper number of gallons can be ordered from the distributor. The owner has accumulated the following data on demand for unleaded gasoline from sales during the past ten months:
Month
|
Gasoline Demanded (gal.)
|
October
|
800
|
November
|
725
|
December
|
630
|
January
|
500
|
February
|
645
|
March
|
690
|
April
|
730
|
May
|
810
|
June
|
1,200
|
July
|
980
|
[A] Calculate an exponentially smoothed forecast, using an alpha value of .30.