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CASE PROBLEM 12.1: Forecasting at State University During the past few years the legislature has severely reduced funding for State University. In reaction, the administration at State has significantly raised tuition each year for the past five years. A bargain five years ago, State is now considered an expensive state-supported university. Some parents and students now question the value of a State education, and applications for admission have declined. Since a portion of state educational funding is based on a formula tied to enrollments, State has maintained its enrollment levels by going deeper into its applicant pool and accepting less qualified students. On top of these problems, an increase in the college-age population is expected in this decade. Key members of the state legislature have told the university administration that State will be expected to absorb additional students during this decade. However, because of the economic outlook and the budget situation, State should not expect any funding increases for additional facilities, classrooms, dormitory rooms, or faculty. The university already has a classroom deficit in excess of 25%, and class sizes are above the average of their peer institutions. The president of the university, Tanisha Lindsey, established several task forces consisting of faculty and administrators to address these problems. These groups made a number of recommendations, including the implementation of total quality management (TQM) practices and more in-depth, focused planning. Discuss in general terms how forecasting might be used for planning to address these specific problems and the role of forecasting in initiating a TQM approach. Include in your discussion the types of forecasting methods that might be used. CASE PROBLEM 12.2: The University Bookstore Student Computer Purchase Program The University Bookstore is owned and operated by State University through an independent corporation with its own board of directors. The bookstore has three locations on or near the State University campus. It stocks a range of items, including textbooks, trade books, logo apparel, drawing and educational supplies, and computers and related products such as printers, modems, and software. The bookstore has a program to sell personal computers to incoming freshmen and other students at a substantial educational discount partly passed on from computer manufacturers. This means that the bookstore just covers computer costs with a very small profit margin remaining. Each summer all incoming freshmen and their parents come to the State campus for a three-day orientation program. The students come in groups of 100 throughout the summer. During their visit the students and their parents are given details about the bookstore’s computer purchase program. Some students place their computer orders for the fall semester at this time, while others wait until later in the summer. The bookstore also receives orders from returning students throughout the summer. This program presents a challenging supply chain management problem for the bookstore. Orders come in throughout the summer, many only a few weeks before school starts in the fall, and the computer suppliers require at least six weeks for delivery. Thus, the bookstore must forecast computer demand to build up inventory to meet student demand in the fall. The student computer program and the forecast of computer demand have repercussions all along the bookstore supply chain. The bookstore has a warehouse near campus where it must store all computers since it has no storage space at its retail locations. Ordering too many computers not only ties up the bookstore’s cash reserves but also takes up limited storage space and limits inventories for other bookstore products during the bookstore’s busiest sales period. Since the bookstore has such a low profit margin on computers, its bottom line depends on these other products. As competition for good students has increased, the university has become very quality-conscious and insists that all university facilities provide exemplary student service,