27 Mar Lab: Tableau 5.4 Assignment

Part 1 of 3

Item 1

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Keywords: Predictive Analysis, Forecasting, Time Series, Product Demand

Decision-Making Context: There are many reasons to forecast a firm’s future performance. For example, predicting sales dollars may help a company determine its needed manufacturing capacity. Predicting cash flows may help the company decide if it will need a loan or not. At the individual level, an investor might forecast a company’s earnings to evaluate a potential investment.

The goal of this lab is to forecast sales and earnings for Hike ‘Em Hiking Boots, a fictitious company.

Required:

Using Tableau’s forecasting options, forecast product demand for hiking boots at Hike ‘Em Hiking Boots from 2025 to 2026.

Data: Lab 5.4 Data.xlsx

Specify the Question: What will be the monthly demand (in boot sales) for Hike ‘Em Hiking Boots during 2025 through 2027?

Obtain the Data: Open Tableau and connect to Excel file Lab 5.4 Data.xlsx.

Analyze the Data: Refer to lab 5.4 in your text for additional instructions and steps.

Upload one Word or PDF document containing all of your screenshots for this Lab using the button below.

Note: Please submit your file attachment response in one of the approved file formats; Word file (.doc or .docx), Excel file (.xls or .xlsx), or PDF. To submit photo or image files please paste them into Word or PDF. Consult with your instructor as needed on their preferred file attachment format.

1. Take a screenshot of the forecast graph of product demand, paste it into a Word document named “Lab 5.4 Tableau Submission.docx”, and label the screenshot Submission 1.

2. Take a screenshot of the forecast crosstab data (or table) of product demand, paste it into the same Word document, and label the screenshot Submission 2.

 

 

Part 2 of 3

Answer the following questions based on the details computed.

Note: Round your forecast demand and prediction bound answers to 2 decimal places.

 

 

 

Question Answer

1. What is the forecasted product demand for January 2027?

2. Which month has the highest forecasted demand?

 

a) October 2025

b) September 2026

c) January 2027

d) November 2027

3. Which month has a forecast demand of 135.21?

 

a) October 2025

b) September 2025

c) January 2026

d) November 2026

4. What is the upper prediction bound for April 2026?

5. What is the lower prediction bound for May 2027?

 

 

Part 3 of 3

Note: Submit your answers for the following Analysis Questions in the text entry field below. Answer in an essay format.

1. What does forecasting with crosstab data allow you to see? Why is that precise data important, rather than just a broad trend?

2. In this lab, we used a forecast length of 3 years. Why choose 3 years versus a different forecast period (such as 1 year or 5 years)?