Operations Forecasting for “Amazon.com” and Microsoft® Excel® (Template provided)

Please review!! Before you agree to work on assignment

You must an ABOVE average understanding of Excel(formulate input to obtain the correct output).

The EXCEL template is attached is must be used to get the desired results.

*** Please review Entire post to save us both the trouble***

*** I have had two tutor FAIL to complete the assignment. Please have a understanding of Excel before you accept this assignment!!***

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is for students to learn how to apply Operations Forecasting.

Assignment Steps

Resources: Microsoft® Excel® (Template provided)

Select a business operations dataset from the internet, which can be used for forecasting what the results may be at a future state (monthly [for two years], quarterly [for five years], annually [for 20 years]. (See example in the Template). Use caution in using the template, as some of the cells contain formatted functions for performing calculations. You should only need to enter data into Column A and B only. Review the template and the associated data. This should give you an idea of the types of data you will require, and what the results columns reveal. You are required to provide an APA formatted reference to the location of the source data (Do Not just enter the Web Link). The returned work from previous week’s work, should give you some insight as to what an APA reference should look like.

Develop a run over a given period, upper limit and lower limit as to confidence in the forecast using Microsoft® Excel®.Template

• Compare and contrast each quadrant of the forecast.
• Evaluate the impact this forecast would have on the firm from a financial metrics standpoint, by writing a 300-word report in which you describe your forecasting project and what it means in terms of favorable or unfavorable forecast and why or why not..

Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.

Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment.

Please review!! Professor explenation

“1) It says use the Excel template. And it also says: “by writing a 300-word report in which you describe your forecasting project” – my question here is do we use the Microsoft Word to for the 300-word report after we simulated the forecasting in the Excel? YES.

Do we submit the Excel as well or just the Microsoft word document? YES.

2) In the Excel template the date in the column A is from A4 till A 60. Do we also enter our data from A4 to A60? This is a bit subjective, as it is based on what option you selected from the list (monthly [for two years {24 rows}], quarterly [for five years {20 rows}], annually [for 20 years {20 rows}]).

How much data do we need to input to create a forecast? Presented above as number of rows.

3) So, if we will input data in columns A and B, the rest of the columns will calculate automatically? YES.

And will the chart then readjust based on the data that each of us input in the column A and B? YES.

4) In the homework it says: “Compare and contrast each quadrant of the forecast.” Can you please clarify where the quadrants are? For the Monthly, there will be two quadrants (12 months and 12 months); Quarterly there will be five quadrants (5 – one month periods); and Annually, there will be two quadrants (one 10 year and 10 ten year) Or what do you consider quadrants? Above explained.

5) Is this template used in real life to forecast operations? This “exact” template may or may not be used, but the concept and means of arriving at the answers is used in forecasting a future state (usually based on a “time” factor). How is this template used in a real business? It would be helpful to know the application of this template in real life. As the data, which is currently used in the template, are real life airline passenger forecasting. The first 60 rows are “Historical Passenger Headcount” (Column “B”) over a period of time (Column “A”), and the “Forecasted Passenger Headcount” (Column “C”)–future “Potential” travelers.

6) I looked through the chapter 18 in our week 5, and I have not found a paragraph or something about favorable and unfavorable forecast. As per assignment: “what it means in terms of favorable or unfavorable forecast and why or why not…” Can you give us example(s) what favorable and/or unfavorable forecast is? “Favorable” would an increase in potential air travelers per the forecast number going “Up”, and “Unfavorable” would an decrease in potential air travelers per the forecast number going “Down”. I never foretasted anything in business, and it is difficult to implement the homework without some examples. The excel template is just a place to input the numbers, but it would be helpful to have some explanation on what quadrants are, favorable and unfavorable forecasting.

Excel Template instructions:

Columns “A” & “B”, which will populate Column “C” with a forecasted value, based on the historical (Time-based) entries in “A” & “B”.

• Column “A” must use time type data entries: Days, Months, Years, Minutes, Seconds, Hours…Etc.
• Column “B” must use Numerical data entries: Quantities Sold, Admissions, Monetary Amounts, Widgets Produced…Etc.

DO NOT make any changes to Cells in Column “C”. I have taken the formula and incorporated it to calculate a future (forecast) for the historical “Time” and Numerical” data entered into Columns “A” & “B”.

Forecasting will not show for Column “C”, Cells C3 thru C14, as you will require more data points in Columns “A” & “B” than just the A3 thru A14, and B3 thru B14. However, the Template is set up to provide a forecast out to 8-years (as currently formated for monthly speeding ticket issued by law enforcement).

Notice Column “C” Cells C15 thru C38, shows “C15 – C26” as trending to higher numbers (more tickets issued); this could have multiple meanings. “C27 – C38” as trending to lower numbers (less tickets issued); this could have multiple meanings as well.

NOTE: “C39 – C98”, the trend is definitely indicating decreasing numbers, but that is because there is no data entered in Column “B” for those corresponding forecasts.

Lastly, I am not interested in the Confidence Intervals, as this function is not working in earlier versions of MS Excel. So, use the data you have collected, enter into the appropriate cells in Columns “A” & “B”…DO NOT ENTER DATA INTO COLUMN “C”.

The expectation is that you are able to present a compelling narrative from the Quantitative data, into a Qualitative understanding of what the forecast is presenting, and what a company might do to posture the business direction for success or minimizing failures as a result.

There should still be ample time to compete this assignment on time using the new revised Template attached.

I hope this helps

Once again if you do not know how to work excel, PLEASE DO NOT WASTE EITHER OF US.

Thank you for reading!! the assignment is do like yesterday!!