The newly promoted inventory manager wonders if there is an easier, more reliable means of forecasting the sales demand. Currently forecasts are based on the plant manager, sales/marketing manager and inventory manager's knowledge of industry trends, competitive strategies and sales history. He must decide if using statistical forecasting methods would ease the forecasting process and make the forecast more reliable. Students are exposed to different forecasting techniques, including executive opinion, linear regression and time series. The data characteristics include seasonality, trend and random fluctuations.