Learning Exercise

Using the Buggy Palace to Practice Forecasting Skills

This exercise takes students through an interactive series of steps in which they forecast sales for the Buggy Palace, learning the correct way to do a naive, moving average and exponential smoothing forecast. Students are provided with sales forecast figures for individual years and the exercise walks them through the different types of forecasts, with the student having to supply the answer. When an error is made, the student is told why it is wrong. The student then has the option of repeating the exercise or moving on to the next.

Course: Sales Management

Material:: The Buggy Palace Sales Forecasting Exercise
Date last modified:: May 16, 2000
Created by:: Cathy Swift
License:

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The Buggy Palace Sales Forecasting Exercise

The Buggy Palace is a self-scoring forecasting exercise which enables students to solve a series of sales forecasting... see more

Material Type:: Simulation
Author:: Robert Owen, Penn State - Berks
User Rating:: 5 stars

Exercise

Students should follow the instructions given on the webpage.

1. First, print the form, so answers can be written on it.

2. Click on "Here" in the upper right corner to start.

3. Enter your first and last name (this then becomes the name of the "Buggy Company").

4. The exercise appears on the right side.

5. You will need to enter a student ID number (but any can be used).

6. Several statements will pop up and you will click on them.

7. You are first asked to Forecast the 1998 naive forecast and enter the information where the question marks are in the formula.

8. You will then be told whether this is correct or not.

9. If your answer is correct, record it on the form you printed.

10. Continue through the exercise until you have completed it.

Disciplines

Business / Marketing / Sales

Audience

High School

Requirements

Students need to be familiar with the basics of forecasting, including moving average and exponential smoothing.

Topics

Forecasting

Type of Task

Learning Objectives

1. To help students solve a series of sales forecasting exercises.2. To teach students the math involved in forecasting.3. To demonstrate that different types of forecasting techniques supply different estimates.